The site is a rath, a type of ringfort built from earth rather than stone, and the kind of enclosure that once dotted the Irish countryside in its thousands, serving as the fortified homestead of a farming family of some local standing. This particular example is roughly circular in plan, measuring about 27.8 metres north to south and 30.7 metres east to west, enclosed by an earthen bank that still stands to around 1.1 metres in height along its southern and western arc.

The engineering of the site is worth paying attention to. On the outside of the bank runs a fosse, a defensive ditch, that drops to a depth of 2.5 metres, and on the north-western side a natural or partly shaped scarp rises to a considerable 3.7 metres, adding to the sense of enclosure. A possible entrance survives to the south-east, roughly 3 metres wide, which would have been the point of daily passage for the people and livestock who lived here. Because the ground slopes away on the north-eastern side, the interior has been built up to create a level living surface, a small but telling detail that speaks to the practical care taken in laying the place out. Beneath that interior, a souterrain runs underground. A souterrain is a man-made underground passage or chamber, typically stone-lined, used in early medieval Ireland for storage or as a refuge, and their presence within ringforts is a reasonably common feature across Munster.

The fort sits within the townland of Gurteenroe in West Cork, and like many such sites it survives not because it was protected by any formal intervention but simply because the raised earthworks made it awkward to plough out entirely. The combination of bank, fosse, internal scarping, and souterrain gives this particular rath a completeness that makes it worth seeking out if you are already moving through this part of Cork.