A cashel is simply a ringfort whose enclosing boundary is built from stone rather than earthen banks and ditches, and this one is nearly square, measuring roughly 48 metres north to south and 44 metres east to west. That rectilinear form places it within a specific and relatively unusual tradition of drystone enclosures that scholars have been working to understand more clearly.

The site sits on a south-south-west-facing slope along a ridge in an exposed position, embedded within what appears to be an extensive field system representing several different periods of activity. The drystone wall that defines the cashel survives best on its eastern and southern sides, reaching about a metre in height and between one and 1.4 metres wide, which is enough to read clearly in the landscape even now. The northern and western sections of the wall look to be later additions or rebuilds, suggesting the enclosure was modified at some point after its original construction. A hut site occupies the south-western corner, which would have been a natural sheltered spot given the prevailing exposure of the ridge. More intriguing still is the relationship between this cashel and a second one located just 40 metres to the north-north-east: the western and eastern walls of Ballyelly actually continue in the direction of that neighbouring enclosure, hinting at a planned or at least coordinated layout between the two. Bowmer's 2019 study of rectilinear drystone cashels from the early medieval period in Ireland includes this site, situating it within a broader pattern of square or near-square enclosures whose origins and purposes remain an active area of archaeological inquiry.