The result is a monument in two quite different states of survival: one half largely gone, the other quietly intact beneath a tangle of overgrowth.

A ringfort, or rath, is a type of circular enclosed settlement built throughout Ireland roughly between the early medieval period and the early Norman centuries, typically defined by one or more earthen banks and ditches. At Ballycullane, the southeastern section preserves a notably substantial example of this form, with two concentric earthen banks separated by a flat-bottomed fosse, which is essentially a ditch dug to reinforce the defensive or territorial boundary. The inner bank here rises to around 1.7 metres on its outer face, with the external bank reaching over two metres on its inner face; these are not negligible earthworks. By contrast, the northwestern section was levelled around 1958, leaving only a faint scarped edge and a shallow external fosse, both much reduced. A second, fully levelled enclosure lies approximately 30 metres to the southeast, recorded in the national monuments register as LI017-028. The site was compiled by Denis Power and was subject to a preservation order under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014, issued under PO no. 22/1956, which gives some indication of how significant the surviving earthworks were considered to be even decades ago.

The fort sits on a north-facing slope in undulating pasture, and the interior, roughly 28 metres in diameter, is grassed over on the northwest side but heavily overgrown on the southeast. A visitor prepared for that contrast will get the clearest sense of the surviving banks by working around the southeastern arc, where the double-bank arrangement is most legible despite the scrub. The northwestern portion offers easier access underfoot, though there is considerably less to see. Going in winter or early spring, before the vegetation thickens, will make the earthworks considerably easier to read.