A rath, as this type of monument is known, is a circular enclosure built during the early medieval period, typically between the fifth and twelfth centuries, and used as a farmstead or place of status by a family or small community. What makes this one worth a closer look is a small but telling detail: the interior has been deliberately raised on its northern side to account for the natural slope of the hill beneath it. Someone, more than a thousand years ago, decided that the floor of their enclosure would be level, and they moved earth accordingly.

The enclosure measures twenty-six metres across from north to south, defined by an earthen bank that rises nearly two metres above the interior on its north-eastern to western arc, with an external fosse, a defensive ditch, cut to a depth of around 1.8 metres alongside it. Where the bank gives way elsewhere, a scarp, a cut or shaped slope in the ground, takes over, reaching some 2.6 metres in height. The entrance, narrow at just 1.2 metres wide, faces south-south-east, and its eastern side is reinforced with stone facing, a detail that suggests some care was taken with the threshold. The combination of bank, ditch, and scarp across different sections of the perimeter points to a site adapted to its terrain rather than imposed upon it.