The rath at Ballingarrane in County Tipperary does not follow that pattern. Its banks are considerably more substantial than the norm, with the inner bank rising 2.26 metres above the fosse and the outer bank reaching 2.35 metres above it, measurements that place this well outside the ordinary range. Whatever this enclosure was protecting, or whoever built it, they were not cutting corners.

The site sits on a gentle south-west-facing slope in upland pasture, and the earthworks survive in considerable detail. The circular interior measures 41.4 metres in diameter and is enclosed by a bank and a deep U-shaped fosse, the ditch that runs between the inner and outer banks, with a further external bank beyond. A gap in the north-west quadrant cuts through both banks and may represent the original entrance, though it looks as though it could equally have been forced open at some later point. In the south-east quadrant the inner bank has been dug into and the fosse filled, signs of interference that are common enough on sites that remained in agricultural use across the centuries. A more intriguing feature sits to the east: a break in the outer bank leads to a spring well with a pool, one that floods in winter. The association of ringforts with spring wells is not uncommon in Ireland, and whether this water source influenced the original choice of location is impossible to say, but the connection is suggestive. About fifty metres to the north lies a possible second enclosure, raising the question of whether the two features were ever related in function or date.

The fosse and outer bank are heavily overgrown with gorse, which makes the earthworks difficult to read from the outside, though the interior remains relatively clear apart from nettles and thistles. Larger stones appear on top of the inner bank in the western quadrant, hinting at a possible stone element to the construction that the clay-and-pebble composition elsewhere does not fully explain.