The whole settlement fits within a roughly triangular area, about eighty metres across in both directions, tapering to a point at the north. That shape alone sets it apart from the more familiar rectangular enclosures of medieval rural life in Ireland, and the way the western boundary bank simply continues beyond the settlement, functioning as an ordinary field divide, suggests the community was woven tightly into a working agricultural landscape rather than set apart from it.

The most substantial feature sits in the northern corner of the triangle, a rectangular or trapezoidal structure roughly twenty-two metres long by seven metres wide, known locally as The Chapel. Whether it ever served a religious function is unclear, but the name has stuck. South of it, two houses survive in notably good condition relative to the rest of the site. The larger of the pair, measuring fifteen metres by eight, is aligned north to south and enclosed by a stone wall still standing to around sixty centimetres; the second, slightly smaller and oriented north-west to south-east, sits just to the east. A further possible house and a partial enclosure lie to the south of these. On the eastern edge of the settlement, a C-shaped structure about five metres across, with a narrow depression leading into it from the west, may represent a small kiln, the kind of simple structure used for drying grain or burning lime. Just outside the triangular area to the north-west stands a small square structure, four metres by four, whose purpose is not recorded. Cultivation ridges in the fields to either side of the settlement are a reminder that the people who lived here worked the land immediately around them.

Deserted medieval settlements, which are found across Ireland and were often abandoned during the population collapses of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, typically survive as little more than soil marks or cropmarks. What makes Ballyfolan relatively unusual is the legibility of the remains at ground level, with multiple structures of different scales and likely functions still distinguishable within a compact, coherent plan.