That small cartographic curiosity points to something easy to overlook: the raised rounded bank that encircles the base of the tower, a feature that evidently read to nineteenth-century surveyors as something older and more defensive than a grain-processing structure. Whether the mill was deliberately sited within an earlier earthwork, or whether the bank belongs to the mill's own construction history, the ambiguity has never been fully resolved, and it gives the place an atmosphere slightly out of step with its practical origins.

The tower itself rises to roughly 12.2 metres, a straight-sided cylinder with an internal diameter of 3.80 metres, pierced by plain rectangular windows on the south side and above two diametrically opposed doorways facing east and west. It is what millers call a tower mill, meaning only the cap at the top rotates to face the wind, rather than the whole body of the structure turning as one. The four sails would originally have been canvas, stretched across a wooden frame. At some point, approximately three additional stone courses were added to the original structure and a concrete capping applied; the thatched cap and wooden-beamed cap visible today are replicas, added later to restore something of the mill's working appearance. A low plinth runs around the base, 0.30 metres high and 0.20 metres wide, recorded by Ní Ghabhláin in 1987. The mill forms part of the wider Skerries Mills Complex, a grouping of historic mill buildings that makes this part of north County Dublin unusually rich in surviving milling heritage.

The windmill stands on a prominent rise above the village of Skerries, so it is visible from some distance before you reach it. Visiting as part of the Skerries Mills Complex is the most straightforward approach, as the site is managed within that broader context. Once you are standing at the base, it is worth walking the perimeter slowly to take in the encircling bank and to look for the plinth at ground level, details that are easy to pass by if you are focused on the tower itself. The south-facing windows are best seen in morning or midday light.