A circular enclosure, invisible to anyone walking the land, reveals itself as a cropmark, the phenomenon whereby buried archaeological features cause the vegetation above them to grow differently, producing patterns of colour and texture that stand out against the surrounding crop when viewed from above.

The enclosure was captured in aerial photographs taken by Michael Moore on 16 July 2006. Circular enclosures of this kind are common throughout Ireland and typically represent the buried remains of a ringfort or rath, a farmstead enclosed by an earthen bank and ditch that was in widespread use from the early medieval period. Over centuries, ploughing can flatten these structures until nothing survives above ground, yet the filled-in ditch, with its looser, more moisture-retentive soil, continues to feed the crops above it differently, sketching out the original plan in green and gold. The Ballinteskin example was recorded as a possible enclosure, meaning the cropmark pattern is suggestive but not yet confirmed through excavation or further survey.