A subcircular enclosure, roughly 45 metres north to south and about 40 metres east to west, was recorded on the Ordnance Survey six-inch maps, sitting on a gentle rise in what is otherwise level terrain. Today, no visible surface trace survives. The enclosure has, in effect, vanished.

Enclosures of this kind are among the most common archaeological features in the Irish landscape. They range from the remains of early medieval ringforts, which served as farmsteads enclosed by earthen banks and ditches, to earlier prehistoric boundaries whose original purposes are harder to pin down. What makes the Ballintava example quietly interesting is the small biographical detail preserved in the cartographic record: by the time the third edition Ordnance Survey map was produced in 1926, the enclosure was shown as planted with trees. That planting, modest as it sounds, almost certainly contributed to the erasure of whatever earthwork remained. Tree roots, forestry clearance, and the general pressures of agricultural improvement have between them obliterated countless such features across Ireland. The rise on which this one stood may still be faintly perceptible underfoot, but the enclosure itself has left nothing for the eye to follow.