A fosse, to use the old term, is simply a ditch dug around a monument or settlement to define its boundary and offer a degree of protection. At Ballyneety, the raised interior platform measures roughly 60 metres across, set in undulating ground that slopes gently to the east-south-east.

What survives on the ground is partial and worn. A low scarp, between 0.69 and 0.77 metres high, defines the perimeter, and the earth around the north-east, south-east, and south-west edges appears to have been dug into at various points, leaving shallow circular depressions. The north-west edge has been lost entirely. The outer fosse itself is only clearly readable in the south-west quadrant, where it measures around five metres wide and just over 0.3 metres deep. The interior of the platform slopes gently towards the north-east, and the aerial photograph hints at a break in the fosse on the eastern side, which may mark where an entrance once stood. Two kilometres to the north-east, the silhouette of Ballindoney tower house is visible from the site, a reminder that this broader landscape was occupied and contested across many centuries, even as the enclosure itself recedes from easy recognition.