That proximity alone is unusual. Ringforts, known in Irish as raths, are the most common field monument in Ireland, typically the enclosed farmsteads of early medieval families, defined by a circular bank and ditch. Finding two in such near company, on the same spine of high ground, raises quiet questions about whatever social or agricultural arrangement once organised this landscape.

The Ballyglass rath sits towards the western end of its ridge, just below the highest point. Its circular platform measures roughly 28 metres north to south and 25.5 metres east to west, defined by a substantial earthen scarp rather than the classic raised bank; the scarp reaches two metres in height along the southern side. A slightly raised internal rim survives at the south-west, possibly what remains of an original bank that was later cut back, and much of the circuit has a strikingly vertical profile that suggests fairly recent modification. The north-east and eastern sections have been more heavily disturbed, quarried out to some depth. A gentler, ramp-like slope at the east-south-east may mark the original entrance. Field walls now press in on three sides, built to within a metre of the scarp, and one has been constructed directly against a slumped section at the north-west. The interior is level but uneven underfoot. Local tradition holds that it served as a children's burial ground, a cillín, the informal consecrated spaces, usually set apart from churchyards, where unbaptised infants and others excluded from formal burial rites were laid to rest. Such associations are common at ringforts across Ireland, the old enclosures absorbing new meanings across the centuries.

The site looks westward over a broad, flat expanse of pasture and bog, the view opening out considerably in that direction. To the east, the ground steps down past the terrace and towards the companion rath, with gently undulating country beyond it rolling away into Galway.