That name alone suggests the place carries a kind of personality, something more particular than the thousands of anonymous earthworks scattered across the Irish countryside. Ringforts, known in Irish as raths or lisses, were enclosed farmsteads typically built during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Most consist of a circular area surrounded by one or more earthen banks, and this one at Gortnaskeha follows that familiar pattern while retaining enough of its original form to read clearly in the landscape.

The site is what archaeologists call a univallate rath, meaning it has a single enclosing bank rather than the two or three concentric rings found at higher-status examples. The internal area measures approximately 36 metres north to south and 35 metres east to west, making it a reasonably substantial enclosure. The earthen bank survives to a maximum external height of 1.7 metres, though it stands only about 0.6 metres above the interior ground level, suggesting some silting and accumulation over the centuries. At its base the bank averages around 6 metres in width. The entrance faces east, as is common among Irish ringforts, where an opening roughly 4 metres wide may once have been lined with stone, a detail that points to some deliberate construction effort beyond the simple piling of earth. A small stream runs along the exterior of the western sector of the bank, a natural feature that would have added a modest defensive or drainage benefit to the western edge of the enclosure.