Sitting on a north-facing slope in Ballygrace, with the ground dropping sharply on the western side towards a stream below, whoever built it faced an immediate engineering problem: a hillside does not offer a level surface, and a circular enclosure on uneven ground needs careful adjustment to function properly. The builders compensated by raising the interior on the northwest side, effectively levelling the floor of the enclosure against the natural pull of the slope.

A ringfort, sometimes called a rath, is an early medieval farmstead, typically dating from roughly the fifth to the twelfth century, enclosed by one or more earthen banks and ditches for security and to define the household's space. This example follows that form closely. A roughly circular area, measuring about 35.9 metres north to south and 34.5 metres east to west, is enclosed by an earthen bank standing about a metre above the interior ground level. Outside the bank, a fosse, or ditch, runs around the northeastern to eastern and southeastern to southwestern arc of the enclosure, reaching a depth of around 0.9 metres at its deepest. Two breaks in the bank, one to the southeast and a wider one to the north-northwest, would have served as entrances. The southeast gap is approximately 2.8 metres across, the north-northwest one slightly broader at 3.25 metres. These gaps, placed on opposite sides of the enclosure, may reflect separate access points for people and livestock, a common practical arrangement in sites of this kind.

The site now sits in pasture, and the earthworks survive in reasonable condition. The steep fall of land on the western edge, down towards the stream, remains one of the more noticeable features when approaching, giving a clear sense of why the builders made the choices they did.