What gives it away, if you know what to look for, is the slight rise of an earthen bank running around the circumference, and the shallow depression just beyond it, the remnant of a fosse, which is the defensive ditch dug to reinforce the enclosure when it was first constructed.

This is a rath, the most common type of ringfort found across Ireland. Ringforts were typically built during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries, and served as enclosed farmsteads for single family groups, the bank and fosse combination providing a degree of security for livestock and inhabitants alike. The Ballykenny example follows that familiar circular plan, but a few details make it worth a closer look. The fosse survives in notably better condition on the north-west to north arc, where it reaches around four metres in width, while it becomes very shallow as it curves back around to the north-west. There is a gap of roughly four metres in the bank at the east-north-east, most likely the original entrance point. A field boundary has been built along the top of the bank at some point, running the full circumference, which has both preserved and partly obscured the earlier structure. The interior remains level and grassed over. A second ringfort, recorded separately, lies approximately 15 metres to the south-south-west, making this a paired example, a pairing that occasionally suggests related or contemporary occupation of the same landscape.

The site sits in ordinary agricultural land, and there is nothing formally managed or signposted about it. The notes were compiled by Denis Power and uploaded to the record in August 2011, which gives a useful starting point for anyone researching the site through the Archaeological Survey of Ireland database before visiting. The earthworks are most legible in low winter light or early morning, when raking shadows pick out the bank and fosse more clearly than they would in the flat brightness of a summer afternoon. The field boundary running along the bank top is the most visible feature from a distance, so tracing that line is the practical way to get a sense of the full circuit.