It is the kind of casual bisection that happens when farmland is reorganised over centuries without much regard for what lies beneath the surface, and it has left the ringfort in a quietly awkward state, half-wild and half-grazed, its original form partially legible but requiring some effort of imagination to read.

A ringfort, sometimes called a rath, is an enclosed farmstead of the early medieval period, typically dating from roughly the fifth to the twelfth century. Most were built by farming families as a combination of home and livestock enclosure, with the surrounding bank providing both a degree of security and a visible marker of status. This example sits on top of a steep-sided hillock near Cloone in County Leitrim, which would have given its inhabitants a commanding view of the surrounding terrain. The enclosure is roughly subcircular, measuring about 31 metres across on its widest axis. The defining earthen bank, between four and five metres wide, survives to a height of around 0.3 metres along the eastern, southern, and western sides, while elsewhere it has weathered down to a scarp only slightly higher. At the north-east, facing-stones are still visible, remnants of the original structural revetment that once gave the bank its shape and solidity.