The most closely recorded of these occupies the south-west quadrant of the ringfort, a roughly rectangular structure measuring just 4.3 metres from north-north-east to south-south-west and 2.8 metres across. What survives is a low bank of earth and stone, around a metre high and 1.2 metres wide, with a narrow entrance gap facing east-south-east. To its south, a small and poorly defined annex extends the footprint slightly, though its original purpose is no longer easy to read.

Ringforts, the most common monument type in the Irish landscape, were enclosed settlements typically dating from the early medieval period, roughly the sixth to the twelfth centuries. They usually housed a single farming family and their livestock, and it is not unusual to find internal structures within them, small buildings used for sleeping, storage, or craft work. What makes Ballinive worth pausing over is the concentration of three separate hut sites within a single enclosure, suggesting a more complex or extended pattern of occupation than a lone family farmstead might imply. The site sits on rising ground with open views to the south, south-east, and west, though the northern aspect is restricted, a positioning that would have offered both practical shelter and broad visibility across the surrounding land.