For decades, this early medieval farmstead in County Waterford existed only as a ghost. Visible neither to the eye nor to the spade, its presence was first suggested by a cropmark, the subtle discolouration of growing grain above buried ditches that aerial photography can sometimes catch. A geophysical survey in 2001 confirmed that something lay beneath the tillage on this gently north-facing slope near Knockhouse, but it was not until 2015, when the land was re-zoned for industrial use and excavation became a condition of development, that the site was finally opened. What emerged was a ringfort, the ubiquitous enclosed farmstead of early medieval Ireland, typically consisting of a circular area ringed by one or more earthen banks and ditches. This one, measuring roughly 30 metres across internally and 65 metres overall, turned out to be considerably more elaborate than most.

The excavation, carried out by Walsh and Ficner in 2015, revealed a settlement dated to the 8th to 10th centuries AD. Three concentric ditches, or fosses, had originally surrounded the interior, the innermost steep-sided and up to two metres deep, cut in places straight into the underlying slaty bedrock. The entrance, roughly 2.5 to 3 metres wide and positioned in the north-east quadrant, was flanked by drystone revetments and marked by two pairs of large post-holes, interpreted as the footings of a gated structure. Inside the enclosure, excavators found the remains of two buildings defined by post-hole patterns, a sunken structure, and two souterrains, underground stone-lined passages that in early medieval Ireland served variously for storage, refuge, or ventilation. Field ditches running alongside the ringfort appear to be contemporary with it, suggesting the settlement sat within a managed agricultural landscape. The outermost of the three fosses was discontinuous, broken by several gaps, which may indicate it served a different function from the tighter inner defences, perhaps marking a boundary rather than providing serious protection.