It takes the form of a D-shape, roughly 35 metres across at its widest point, defined by nothing more dramatic than a low earthen bank. The straight edge along its south-western side appears to have been cut short by a disused trackway, suggesting that the landscape has been quietly rearranging itself around this feature for some time, each layer of human activity leaving a mark on the one before it.

The enclosure sits within undulating coarse pasture, embedded in a much larger field system and close to a related one nearby. Enclosures of this kind are broadly prehistoric or early medieval in origin, used variously as farmsteads, animal enclosures, or the boundaries of small settlements, though attributing a precise function or date without excavation is difficult. What gives the Ballyvoe example a particular quality is how thoroughly it has been absorbed into the working landscape around it. It was identified by Conn Herriott through aerial orthophotography, the kind of overhead view that reveals earthworks invisible at ground level, where the shadows cast by low banks at certain times of day make patterns that centuries of ploughing and grazing have failed to entirely erase.