What remains measures roughly 26 metres north to south and 21.5 metres east to west, its outline defined partly by a bank of earth and stone running from the south-west to the west, and elsewhere by a simple scarp, a slope cut into the ground that once served as an enclosing feature. The monument has been extensively quarried, meaning that stone has been taken from it over the years, leaving the structure incomplete and the full original circuit difficult to read.

Ringforts, known in Irish as raths when earthen, were the dominant form of enclosed farmstead in early medieval Ireland, typically dating from roughly the fifth to the twelfth centuries. They were not military fortifications in any grand sense, but rather enclosed homesteads, the bank and ditch providing security for livestock and a degree of social distinction for the farming family within. The Barnpark example, worn and quarried as it is, fits this broader pattern, a modest enclosure on a slight elevation that would have afforded its occupants a clear view of the surrounding land and, perhaps equally importantly, made the settlement itself visible to those passing through.