It is the kind of monument that appears on maps and in registers without yet giving much of itself away, a shape in a field whose precise age, purpose, and construction remain, for now, largely undocumented in publicly available sources.

Enclosures of this type in Kerry can range considerably in origin and function. Some are early medieval ringforts, the most common field monument in Ireland, built as defended farmsteads by farming families between roughly the fifth and twelfth centuries. Others are the remains of later enclosures associated with agriculture, settlement, or land management. The word "enclosure" as a classification simply describes the form, a bounded area defined by a bank, ditch, wall, or some combination of these, without specifying what life, if any, was carried out within it. Cloonmore itself is a placename of Irish origin, likely derived from "An Cluain Mór", meaning the great meadow or pasture, which hints at a landscape long shaped by farming and grazing rather than any dramatic geography.