Two earthen banks enclose an area roughly 44 metres north to south and 39 metres east to west, separated by a fosse, the term for the ditch dug between or around such banks to reinforce the enclosure's defensive depth. The outer bank, standing to about 1.3 metres, has been absorbed into the field fence system along its western and northern sides, a fate common to many Irish earthworks as farmland was reorganised across the centuries. The inner bank is lower and survives most clearly along the northern side, while a shallow external fosse to the east still registers at around 0.3 metres deep.

Ringforts, known in Irish as ráth when built primarily of earth, were the most common form of enclosed settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically dating from roughly the sixth to the twelfth century. They served as farmsteads rather than military fortifications, the enclosing banks providing security for livestock and household alike. At Ballinard, the entrance faces east and is two metres wide, with a causeway preserving a crossing over the intervening fosse. Inside, cultivation ridges run close to the northern bank, suggesting the enclosed ground was worked as garden or tillage plots at some point in its long history. More intriguing still is a low mound in the north-east quadrant, four metres across and roughly 0.3 metres high, near which a souterrain has been identified. A souterrain is an underground stone-lined passage or chamber, usually associated with ringforts and thought to have served as storage space or a refuge, and its possible presence here adds another layer to what the site may once have contained below ground as well as above it.