It is roughly forty metres across, bounded by a stony bank that still stands to about eighty centimetres in height along its northern side, though elsewhere the bank has been worn down or collapsed to little more than a low scarp. What makes the entrance particularly notable is a single granite boulder, over a metre long and set deliberately on its edge, marking the southern side of the western gateway. Someone placed it there with purpose.

Enclosures of this kind, sometimes associated with early medieval farming or settlement, are found across Ireland in varying states of preservation. At Ballyward, the interior holds a hut site in the eastern quadrant, the remains of a small structure that would once have provided shelter, whether for people, animals, or both. At the north-eastern corner, an annex butts up against the main enclosure, suggesting the site was extended or adapted at some point, though without excavation it is impossible to say when or precisely why. The granite boulder at the entrance, carefully positioned rather than simply left where it fell, implies a degree of intention in the original layout that the centuries of overgrowth have done little to obscure entirely.