'Cahir' derives from the Irish cathair, a term sometimes used for a stone-built or stone-faced fortification, and its attachment to a family name suggests the kind of intimate local memory that formal maps rarely capture.

The site itself is a subcircular ringfort, measuring roughly 32 metres north to south and 29 metres east to west, defined by a stone-faced bank that has suffered considerable deterioration over time. Ringforts, which date broadly to the early medieval period in Ireland, were enclosed farmsteads rather than military structures; a family would have lived within the bank, with livestock sheltered nearby. The southern gap in the bank at Quinaltagh looks modern rather than original, though it is possible it follows the line of an earlier entrance. What gives the site an additional layer of interest is its relationship with the second ringfort to the northeast: the Quinaltagh example sits on lower ground, effectively overlooked by its neighbour, which raises quiet questions about how the two enclosures related to one another and whether they were ever in use at the same time.