It is made up entirely of single carriageway with few overtaking opportunities and only a small amount of hard shoulder.

It runs roughly east–west from its junction with the M8 motorway, bypassing Mitchelstown to the north via the Mitchelstown relief road, which opened in July 2006.

The route then travels through Kildorrery, a small village and then on towards Mallow merging with the N72.

There are no major improvements proposed for this route in the foreseeable future and only minor improvements have been made to date.

On 25 May 2009, a Mitchelstown bypass (section of the single carriageway N8 road) was redesignated the N73 when the Mitchelstown-Fermoy section of the M8 motorway opened to traffic.