The place is recorded simply as Iron Works, a designation that points to small-scale iron production or processing, the kind of low-key industrial activity that once occurred across Ireland in locations now largely forgotten. Iron working at this sort of site typically involved smelting local bog iron ore or processing imported material, and the physical evidence left behind can range from slag heaps and furnace remains to the earthwork platforms that once supported bellows and forge structures.

The ironworking tradition in Clare, as in much of rural Ireland, belongs broadly to a period stretching from the medieval into the early modern era, when local landlords or small operators ran forge operations to supply agricultural tools, nails, and hardware to nearby communities. The name Tobernagat itself is of interest: tobar in Irish means a well or spring, and such place names often indicate a site with a longer history of human activity than any single monument record might suggest. Beyond the recorded designation, the specific history of this particular works, its operators, its period of activity, and its physical extent, remains to be properly documented.