What survives is a rath, the Irish term for a roughly circular enclosure defined by an earthen bank and, originally, an outer ditch or fosse. These were the farmsteads of early medieval Ireland, typically dating from roughly the fifth to the twelfth centuries, and several thousand of them survive across the country in varying states of preservation. This one in Ballinure has held its ground, though only just.

The enclosure measures approximately 32 metres north to south and 32.6 metres east to west, making it a fairly typical example of the type. The defining bank, standing to around 0.8 metres in height, runs from the western side around to the east-south-east, where it gives way to field fences that have absorbed its line and effectively replaced it. Slight traces of a fosse, the shallow ditch that would once have ringed the outside of the bank, remain visible in places. The bank is overgrown, as is common with sites like this, and a break on the northern side serves as the original entrance point, oriented towards the extensive view that opens out to the north from this slope. The interior dips gently in the same direction, giving the enclosed space a mild but noticeable tilt.