The rectangular enclosure measures approximately 40 metres from north to south and 28.5 metres from east to west, its boundaries marked by an earthen bank that rises to about 85 centimetres in height along the northeastern, eastern and southern sides. Outside this bank runs a shallow defensive ditch, or fosse, now only about 20 centimetres deep but most visible on the southern side where waterlogging has helped preserve its outline.

The site shows signs of later agricultural use, with traces of an outer bank about 30 centimetres high that has been incorporated into a stone-faced earthen field fence along the eastern boundary. This fence, standing at 70 centimetres, represents the kind of practical reuse common in the Irish landscape, where medieval earthworks often became integrated into more recent field systems. The interior of the enclosure tells its own story of neglect; the eastern half sits noticeably higher than the western portion, whilst the entire surface remains poorly drained and has been churned up by grazing cattle over the years.

These moated sites, dating primarily from the Anglo-Norman period, served as defended farmsteads for colonists who needed protection in what was often hostile territory. The defensive fosse would have originally been deeper and likely water-filled, creating a barrier against raids whilst the raised platform inside provided a dry foundation for timber buildings. Today, what remains at Ballyfilibeen is a ghostly impression of medieval settlement patterns, preserved in the waterlogged fields of Mid Cork and documented in the Archaeological Inventory of County Cork, Volume 3, published in 1997.