Ringforts, known in Irish as raths, were enclosed farmsteads typically built during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Most were home to a single farming family, the enclosing bank serving as much to define social status as to provide physical protection. At Ballindoo, the rath occupies a slight rise in the landscape, and although field fences and hedgerows now limit long views, there are open sightlines to the south and west that would once have been considerably more useful to whoever settled here.

The earthwork is nearly circular, measuring 34 metres north to south and 34.5 metres east to west, enclosed by a broad, low earthen bank. The bank varies in width and height around its circuit, reaching 3.65 metres wide on the east side, with an external height of around 1.4 metres in places. Stones visible on the inner face may be the remnants of an original stone kerb or facing, suggesting the structure was once more formally finished than it now appears. At the north-east, a narrower, stone-heavy section with a pointed profile indicates later modification, and a low berm on its outer edge probably preserves a trace of the bank's original dimensions. A slight depression on the south-west and western arc might represent the remains of a fosse, the ditch that typically accompanied such banks, though it is indistinct enough that recent ground disturbance cannot be ruled out. A gap of 1.4 metres at the south-east is the most likely candidate for the original entrance.

The interior is level and grassed over, with gorse colonising the north-west quadrant and hawthorn and gorse scattered around the perimeter. Field fencing has been built directly against the bank on the south arc and runs along the top of it to the west, while a recently dug pit sits just outside the monument to the north-west. These are common hazards for earthworks in working farmland, and they make reading the site's full extent more difficult, but enough of the original form survives to give a clear sense of how the enclosure was once laid out.