This is a cashel, the term used specifically for a ringfort, one of Ireland's most common early medieval monument types, built using stone rather than earthen banks. Where earthen ringforts are known as raths, cashels were typically constructed in areas where stone was plentiful and easy to work, and this part of Limerick, with its limestone geology, provided exactly that.

The site at Ballyhibbin measures thirty metres in diameter, enclosed by a stone bank that stands 1.45 metres on its interior face and a considerably more modest 0.45 metres on the exterior, suggesting the original ground level outside has risen over the centuries through soil accumulation and vegetation growth. The bank is best preserved along its southern to northern arc, and a dry-stone field wall, the kind of boundary marker that farmers have been building and rebuilding in this landscape for generations, skirts around the external base from the south-east round to the south-south-west, indicating the site has been folded into the working agricultural landscape rather than fenced off from it. A limestone outcrop has been incorporated directly into the bank at the north-east, a practical choice that reduced the labour of quarrying and moving stone. The entrance, four metres wide, opens at the south-east, an orientation that occurs frequently in Irish cashels, though the reasons for it remain a matter of discussion among archaeologists. The record was compiled by Denis Power and uploaded in August 2011.

The interior slopes unevenly downward toward the east and is described as masked by dense vegetation, so a visit in late winter or early spring, when growth has died back, will give a clearer sense of the ground surface and any subtle features that might otherwise be obscured. The site sits below the brow of a hill in rough pasture, so stout footwear is advisable and access should be confirmed with the landowner before approaching. The exterior bank is most legible walking the southern arc, where the stonework retains the most definition.