Ringforts, sometimes called raths, were the enclosed farmsteads of early medieval Ireland, typically circular enclosures defined by earthen banks and ditches, and built to protect a household and its livestock. This one at Borrisnafarney carries that familiar form, but with complications layered in by later hands.

The enclosure measures roughly 25 metres across and is defined by two concentric earth and stone banks, separated by a wide, waterlogged fosse. A fosse is simply a ditch, here running between four and eight metres wide and reaching a depth of around 0.7 metres, though its present dimensions appear to owe something to later intervention. The fosse seems to have been deliberately widened at some point to serve as part of a drainage scheme for the surrounding land, and the outer bank, which survives to an external height of about 0.6 metres, shows signs of having been altered in the same process. That outer bank varies considerably in width, between 2.2 and 9 metres, suggesting it was built up or spread outward over time rather than left as originally constructed. A gap of around 9 metres breaks both banks on the south-west side, which may represent the original entrance to the enclosure, the place where a gate or passageway once stood. To the north, a separate earthwork site occupies the same upland area, hinting that this corner of Tipperary was used and modified across a long stretch of time. The whole interior is now heavily overgrown, the banks softened under vegetation, the fosse holding water, the entrance a gap in the greenery rather than any visible threshold.