Tree-rings, sometimes called ring plantations or shelter belts arranged in a deliberate circle, were a characteristic element of designed landscapes in Ireland during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Landowners used them to mark boundaries, frame views, or simply signal cultivation and order in a countryside that might otherwise appear untamed. The circular form gave them a visual presence that a straight hedgerow never could, and from a distance they can resemble something far older, which is part of what makes them easy to overlook or misread.