A rath, as this type of monument is known, is an early medieval farmstead enclosed by one or more earthen banks and ditches, built to define territory and provide a degree of security for the family and livestock within. At Ballyshane, the southern arc of that enclosure is still present, its earthen bank running roughly west to east for just over thirty-eight metres, rising to about a metre above the surrounding ground. Beneath it, an external fosse, a drainage and defensive ditch, still holds its shape to a depth of around eighty centimetres. In places the bank retains stone facing, suggesting some care in its original construction. The northern half of the enclosure has been lost, most likely to the same tillage that now works the ENE-facing slope on which the remains sit.

What anchors the site historically is the 1842 Ordnance Survey six-inch map, which records it as a complete circular enclosure. That image of wholeness makes the subsequent loss of the northern portion easier to measure and to mourn. Two features of the surviving section deserve particular attention. A gap in the southern bank functions as the original gateway, opening onto a laneway that still runs southward, suggesting the old entrance route has never entirely fallen out of use. At the western end of the fosse, a well sits at the base of the bank, now encased in concrete. Wells within or immediately adjacent to raths are not uncommon, and their presence is a reminder that these were working domestic spaces, not purely defensive ones.