The rath at Ballyvaloon, a type of enclosed farmstead typically dating to the early medieval period in Ireland, shows up as a neatly hachured circular enclosure, roughly 30 metres in diameter, on the OS six-inch sheets of 1842, 1904, and 1938. That consistency across three surveys suggests the earthwork survived largely intact well into the twentieth century. Then, around 1988, during the clearing of field fences, it was levelled.

What remains is an arc of earthen bank running from the south-west to the north-west, still standing to an internal height of around 2 metres in places, and now absorbed into the existing field boundary system. To the north and south of this arc, a slight rise in the ground is thought to trace the line of the bank that was removed. In the field immediately to the east, a greater concentration of stones in the soil hints at what once lay within or around the enclosure. The site sits on a south-south-west-facing slope, currently under tillage, a setting that would have made practical sense for an early farmer seeking shelter and aspect, but which also made it vulnerable once modern agricultural priorities took over.