The monument is a circular enclosure roughly 32 metres across, defined by a bank that has slumped over time to a height of just half a metre and a width of about three metres. What might once have formed a clear boundary around a farmstead or defended enclosure is now little more than a swell in the ground, and modern field walls have cut straight across it, one running from west-southwest to east-southeast, another branching off toward the northeast and slicing through the bank at that corner.

Raths, or ringforts, are among the most common archaeological monuments in Ireland, with tens of thousands surviving in various states across the country. Most date to the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries, and functioned as enclosed farmsteads for a single family and their livestock. What lifts Knockballyclery beyond the ordinary, even in its diminished condition, is the presence of a souterrain in the northwest quadrant of the enclosure. A souterrain is an underground stone-lined passage or chamber, typically built as a place of refuge, storage, or concealment, and their association with ringforts is well established across Ireland. The existence of one here suggests that whoever occupied this site invested real effort in its construction, even if the surface remains have since been reduced to almost nothing. The site was noted by McCaffrey in 1952 and later by Korff and O'Connell in 1985, records that confirm its presence and condition over several decades.