The ring-barrow at Balrath is a large prehistoric funerary monument, a form in which a central burial mound is encircled by a ditch and an outer earthen bank, creating a series of concentric rings readable in the landscape even after millennia of weathering and agricultural interference. At nearly 49 metres across on its longest axis, this is not a modest example of the type. The central mound alone has a basal diameter of roughly 26 to 27 metres and rises up to 1.4 metres above the base of its surrounding ditch, while the outer bank, where best preserved on the north and south-west sides, still stands over a metre above the surrounding ground. What makes the site particularly striking is not just its scale but the company it keeps: a near-identical ring-barrow sits less than 200 metres to the north-east, and the summit cairn on Frewin Hill is clearly visible about 650 metres to the south, with a bowl-barrow on the hill's western spur visible on the skyline to the south-south-west. Lough Owel opens out to the south-east. The site sits within a small but legible prehistoric landscape.

The monument's condition is uneven. The west and south-east sides of the outer bank have been significantly damaged, reducing the diameter on one axis to around 44 metres. More intriguing than the damage, though, is its cause on the south-east side. What first appears to be a trackway cutting through the bank is, on examination, the reused upper surface of a large flat-topped earthwork running north-east to south-west, with its own ditch preserved to the north-west. This feature has been connected, through an interpretation of placenames, folklore, and medieval literary sources by Kane, writing in 1916 to 1917, to the Black Pig's Dyke, a series of linear earthworks traditionally associated with the ancient boundaries of Ulster. The identification was communicated more recently by local historian Tommy Cassidy. Whether or not the connection holds, the presence of a possible linear boundary monument cutting through or abutting a prehistoric burial site suggests that this hilltop in Westmeath has been a place of significance across several different periods and for several different reasons.