By the time the Ordnance Survey recorded it on their 1906 edition six-inch map, the eastern half was already all that remained of a once-complete circular enclosure. A field boundary that once cut across the outer north-eastern quadrant has since been removed, taking further context with it.

Ringforts, known in Irish as raths, were the most common form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically enclosing a farmstead within one or more earthen banks. This example at Ballywire sits on a south-west-facing slope just below the crest of a rise in gently rolling terrain, and what survives is still substantial. The earthen bank measures nearly eight metres wide and rises to an external height of just over two and a half metres, dropping sharply on the outer face. That outer face has been worn and truncated by cattle over time, leaving the bank material exposed in places. The interior height of the bank is around one and three-quarter metres. A gap of just over two metres in the eastern quadrant likely marks the original entrance. The monument is roughly 31 metres in diameter on the north-south axis. Scrub has taken hold along the bank, and brambles have spread into the north-eastern quadrant and along the south-eastern exterior face. About 100 metres to the north-east lies a possible separate earthwork, suggesting this part of Tipperary held some significance across different periods.