It is a rath, the Irish word for a ringfort, and ringforts are among the most common archaeological monuments in Ireland, with estimates suggesting somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 once existed across the island. That familiarity, paradoxically, is part of what makes them easy to overlook.

Raths were typically constructed during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries, and served as enclosed farmsteads for a single family or extended household. The form is simple: a roughly circular area defined by one or more earthen banks and ditches, sometimes reinforced with timber palisading, occasionally incorporating a souterrain, an underground stone-lined passage used for storage or refuge. They were not primarily defensive structures in the military sense, despite appearances, but rather markers of status and property, delineating the space of a farming family within the wider social order of Gaelic Ireland. The Ballynoony example belongs to this long tradition, though without more detailed survey information it is difficult to say much about its specific dimensions, condition, or whether any features such as an entrance causeway or internal structures remain visible.