At Shanakill in County Cork, what survives of this rath, a type of enclosed farmstead typically built between roughly the fifth and twelfth centuries, sits on a west-north-westward-facing slope above the Owenbaun River, and the story it tells is as much about post-medieval land use as it is about whoever once lived inside it. The circular enclosure, roughly 32 metres across, was originally defined by two concentric earthen banks with a shallow fosse, or ditch, running between them. On the north-western to west-south-western arc, those banks remain, standing to about 0.9 metres. Elsewhere, quarrying has removed them entirely and has cut into the interior of the fort itself.

The quarrying is disused now, and both it and the surviving banks have been planted with coniferous trees, giving the site an oddly layered appearance: ancient earthworks and industrial extraction softened over by managed woodland. The surrounding field fences have been taken down, and debris has been tipped onto the outer bank and the fosse to the east, beside a north-south trackway that runs just outside the fort. Gaps survive in both banks, one about 2.5 metres wide in the inner bank to the north-north-west, and a wider one of 3 metres in the outer bank to the north. Whether these openings represent original entranceways, later breaks, or damage related to the quarrying is not recorded, and that uncertainty is part of what makes the place quietly interesting. The earthworks that do remain offer a legible outline of a once-complete enclosure, even as the eastern side has been steadily diminished by generations of practical need.