A rath, as this type of enclosure is known, was typically a circular earthwork used as a farmstead or high-status residence during the early Christian period in Ireland, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. This one is circular in plan, measuring just over twenty-one metres north to south and just under twenty metres east to west, defined by a low, poorly preserved bank of earth and stone. At its widest the bank reaches two metres across, but at its highest it rises only to about seventy centimetres, and in places it dwindles to almost nothing.

What survives at ground level is fragmentary. Discontinuous traces of an outer revetment, meaning a facing of small boulders intended to hold the bank material in place, can still be made out along sections of the perimeter. Beyond that, there is no visible fosse, the defensive ditch that would typically have encircled a rath on its outer edge, nor any discernible entrance or trace of internal features. The place name Blackditches is suggestive, hinting at earthworks in the landscape, though the rath itself is now too reduced to account for the name on its own. Ridge-top positioning was a deliberate choice by whoever built here, offering sightlines across the surrounding terrain that would have mattered considerably to any early medieval farming household with livestock and land to protect.

For anyone who makes their way to the ridge, the experience is one of careful attention rather than dramatic spectacle. The bank is subtle enough that it can read as natural undulation in the ground, and the absence of a visible entrance means there is no obvious point at which to orient yourself. The interest lies in the exercise of looking closely at a slight rise in the earth and recognising, once your eye adjusts, that the regularity of the curve is not accidental.