Enclosed by masonry walls and measuring roughly 30 metres east to west and 25 metres north to south, the enclosure sits on a slight bluff, giving it just enough elevation to overlook a stream running northwest to southeast about 100 metres to the southwest. That combination, a curved boundary, an elevated position, and proximity to running water, is characteristic of early ecclesiastical sites in Ireland, where the layout of the ground often preserves decisions made centuries before any standing structure was built.

St Peter's church, which may have functioned as the parish church of Ferns, occupies the northern edge of the enclosure. It sits within a town already dense with medieval religious history; Ferns Cathedral lies roughly 250 metres to the southwest, a reminder that this was once one of the most significant ecclesiastical centres in Leinster. The precise relationship between St Peter's and the cathedral, whether they served distinct communities or overlapping ones, is not fully resolved, which gives the site a particular kind of ambiguity. The church anchors the northern arc of the D-shaped boundary, a layout that suggests the graveyard's form may predate the building itself, with the church inserted into an existing sacred enclosure rather than the enclosure being created around the church.