It does not announce itself dramatically; the land simply lifts, almost imperceptibly, into a rough ring of overgrown earthwork that has been sitting here, quietly accumulating bramble and moss, for well over a thousand years.

This is a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, the most common monument type surviving in the Irish landscape. Ringforts were typically enclosed farmsteads of the early medieval period, roughly 500 to 1200 AD, in which a family and their livestock lived within a defended circular area. The enclosing bank at Toom runs to about 2.2 metres in height and stretches across a diameter of approximately 30 metres, which places it comfortably within the typical range for a single-family settlement. What makes it slightly unusual is the evidence of stone-facing on parts of the bank, suggesting a degree of construction effort beyond a simple earthen rampart. Outside the bank, a fosse, that is a defensive ditch dug to complement the raised enclosure, once added another layer of protection, though it has long since silted up. The whole sits on a gentle east-facing slope above pasture, a position that would have offered both drainage and a modest view of the approach.