The enclosure measures roughly thirty metres north to south and thirty-two metres east to west, its boundary formed first by a low earth and stone bank rising to about seventy centimetres, then topped by a stone wall adding a further eighty centimetres. Together they would once have made a meaningful barrier, though the centuries have softened both considerably.

This is a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, a type of enclosed farmstead built predominantly during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Ringforts were the ordinary homes of farming families across Ireland, and many thousands survive in varying states of preservation. They were typically defended by one or more earthen banks, sometimes reinforced with stone, enclosing a domestic space where a family lived, kept animals, and stored food. The Anaharlick example follows a familiar pattern: a single enclosing boundary, modest in scale, sitting on agricultural land that has probably been farmed, in one form or another, since the structure was first raised. The combination of an earthen bank faced or capped with stone is a common construction method in Cork, where fieldstone was rarely in short supply.