That impenetrability is, in its own way, part of the record. What could be measured and described from the outside suggests a site that has held its ground quietly for well over a thousand years.

The earthwork is a univallate rath, meaning a ringfort enclosed by a single bank and ditch rather than the multiple concentric rings that mark higher-status sites. Ringforts of this type were the standard farmstead enclosures of early medieval Ireland, built roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries to protect a household, its livestock, and its stores. This example, recorded in J. Cuppage's 1986 archaeological survey of the Dingle Peninsula, measures approximately 24.8 metres east to west and around 25 metres north to south internally. The earthen bank ranges from about 0.8 to 1.5 metres in height, and an external fosse, a shallow defensive ditch, survives most clearly along the south-western sector, where it reaches roughly two metres wide and 0.4 metres deep. Elsewhere the fosse has all but disappeared into the ground. The interior is another matter: it contains a considerable amount of stone, and the centre appears to rise by at least a metre above the surrounding level, though the dense vegetation made it impossible to determine how far that raised area extends. Whether that elevation reflects deliberate construction, accumulated debris, or collapsed internal structures remains an open question.