What the lidar data shows is a sub-circular enclosure of approximately fifty metres in diameter, a size consistent with the ring forts and enclosed farmsteads that were built across Ireland, mostly during the early medieval period, though without excavation the date and function of this particular example remain open questions.

Enclosures of this kind, sometimes called ring forts or raths when constructed from earthen banks, were the basic unit of rural settlement for much of early Irish society, serving as protected farmsteads for families and their livestock. That this one in Ballyadack remained unrecorded until it appeared on lidar imagery is not unusual. Many similar sites survive as faint cropmarks or soil anomalies, invisible at ground level and easy to overlook even from the air using conventional photography. The information was supplied by Colm Chambers, suggesting it came to light through careful review of the lidar data rather than any ground survey.