Wedge tombs, so called because their burial galleries taper in both height and width from front to back, are the most numerous megalithic tomb type in Ireland, and Clare holds a remarkable concentration of them. They date broadly to the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age, roughly 2500 to 2000 BC, and are thought to have served as communal burial places, though their full ritual significance remains a matter of ongoing study.

The principal scholarly record for this site comes from Ruaidhrí de Valera and Seán Ó Nualláin, whose survey of the megalithic tombs of County Clare, published in 1961 as the first volume of their national survey series, remains a foundational reference for Irish prehistoric archaeology. De Valera in particular devoted much of his career to cataloguing and interpreting wedge tombs, arguing that their distribution patterns could illuminate ancient settlement and land use across the island. The Ardskeagh tomb forms part of that broader pattern, a surviving fragment of a prehistoric landscape that would have been far more populated and cultivated than the quiet fields that surround it today.