The rath at Ballintue is a ringfort, one of tens of thousands of such earthworks scattered across Ireland, most of them dating from the early medieval period roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. They were typically the enclosed farmsteads of relatively prosperous families, defined by one or more circular earthen banks and a fosse, the ditch dug to provide the material for those banks. This one sits on a slight natural rise, a modest but deliberate choice of ground that would have given its occupants a marginal advantage in terms of visibility across the surrounding countryside.

The enclosure here is roughly sub-circular, measuring approximately 30 metres north to south and 32 metres east to west. It is defined by two earthen banks with an intervening fosse between them, a double-banked arrangement sometimes associated with higher-status sites, though both banks here are poorly preserved and fragmentary in places. The inner bank retains stretches of dry-stone walling along its inner face at the east-south-east, suggesting the earthwork was reinforced or remodelled at some point with stone. A narrow entrance gap of 1.4 metres cuts through the inner bank at the south, aligned with a low causeway crossing the fosse and a corresponding gap in the outer bank. A second possible entrance gap of the same width appears at the east. The interior rises gently towards the centre, where, besides the ESB pole, there is a low mound that has been partially dug away, exposing some loose stones beneath. Aerial photography from 2011 shows further earthworks of uncertain date to the north and south, and those to the south may connect to earthworks associated with a nearby castle. A nunnery also lies just 135 metres to the south-east, and another ringfort sits 380 metres to the south-west, suggesting this was once a considerably more populated and layered landscape than the quiet fields now suggest.