These enclosures, known in Irish as raths, were the basic unit of early medieval rural settlement, typically consisting of a raised earthen bank and ditch enclosing a homestead and its associated buildings. Most of Ireland's estimated fifty thousand surviving examples are unremarkable to the passing eye, which is partly what makes them so remarkable collectively. This one carries its location name, Cahircalla More, into its record, the townland name itself suggesting some older resonance in the landscape.

The name Cahircalla More combines elements worth pausing over. "Cahir" derives from the Irish cathair, sometimes used for a stone fort or fortified place, though it was also applied loosely to settlements of significance. "More" is the anglicisation of mór, simply meaning great or large, distinguishing this townland from a neighbouring Cahircalla Beg. County Clare has a particularly dense concentration of early medieval enclosures, reflecting the agricultural and social organisation of Gaelic Ireland between roughly the sixth and twelfth centuries. A rath of this kind would have housed a farming family of some local standing, the earthen bank serving less as a military fortification and more as a boundary marker, a statement of territory, and a barrier against livestock straying or predators entering.