The area around Strade is not short of historical weight; the village is best known for its Franciscan friary, founded in the thirteenth century and later converted to Dominican use, which contains some of the finest medieval sculpted stonework in Ireland. That a cave nearby has been formally recognised as a monument of note suggests the landscape holds more beneath its surface than the friary alone would indicate. Caves in an Irish archaeological context can range from simple natural features used for shelter or storage to sites of ritual significance, and occasionally to souterrains, which are artificially constructed underground passages typically associated with early medieval settlements and used for refuge or the cool storage of food.