The interior of this ringfort slopes steeply from north-west to south-east, so that anyone standing inside is instinctively aware of the effort required to hold a position, let alone build one. That deliberate use of difficult terrain is part of what makes the site quietly compelling.

Ringforts, known in Irish as raths when constructed primarily from earthworks, were the most common form of enclosed settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically dating from roughly the fifth to the twelfth centuries. They served as farmsteads and enclosures for livestock as much as defensive structures, and thousands survive across the country in varying states of preservation. The one at Barbaha is notable for how well its elements have held together. The enclosing bank measures between 2.5 and 3.5 metres wide, rising to an internal height of around 2 metres and an external height of up to 5 metres on the northern side, where the ground drops away most sharply. Outside the bank, a fosse, which is a defensive ditch dug to heighten the effective height of the bank above it, runs visibly from south around through west to north, still narrow and deep. The causewayed entrance, a raised pathway across the fosse, sits at the east-south-east at just over 2 metres wide, aligned, as many such entrances are, towards the rising sun.

The site sits in an upland area, which is itself worth noting. Many ringforts occupy more sheltered lowland positions, so the choice of a steep south-eastern slope here suggests that visibility and command of the surrounding landscape may have mattered as much as ease of daily life to whoever established this enclosure.