The outer face of the bank still rises to just over a metre in places, enough to signal that this was once a deliberate boundary, while the interior side has been worn down to little more than fifteen centimetres, centuries of cattle grazing having done what time alone might not. Mature trees now grow along the crest of the bank, their roots binding what hooves have loosened.

What stands here is a rath, the commonest type of ringfort found across Ireland, typically built and occupied between roughly the fifth and twelfth centuries. A rath consists of a circular area enclosed by one or more earthen banks, usually accompanied by an external ditch, known as a fosse, cut to provide the material for the bank itself. They are generally understood to have served as farmsteads, enclosing a family's dwelling and perhaps some livestock within a defined, defensible perimeter. The example at Ballynabearna measures 22.4 metres in diameter, a modest but complete circuit, with its fosse running around the full circumference and deepest on the arc from the north-west through to the east. The site was recorded by Denis Power and uploaded to the national record in August 2011.

The site sits on a south-east-facing slope in marshy pasture, which means the approach on foot can be wet underfoot, particularly in any season other than high summer. The fosse, though shallow at around 25 centimetres deep and less than a metre wide, remains legible on the ground if you walk the outer edge of the bank deliberately. The interior is another matter; briars and brambles have colonised it thoroughly, making any close inspection difficult. The trees along the bank crest are the most immediately striking feature from a distance, giving the whole thing the silhouette of a small, overgrown mound rather than the open enclosure it once was. Looking for the change in vegetation and the slight rise in the field is generally the most reliable way to locate it.