The name Carrowkeel derives from the Irish An Ceathrú Caol, meaning the narrow quarter, a reference to a subdivision of land under the old Gaelic system of territorial measurement. That the earthwork has been noted as a monument at all suggests it was significant enough to mark on the archaeological record, even if the details of what it looks like, how large it is, and what period it belongs to remain out of reach for now.

Earthworks of this kind in County Clare can range considerably in age and function. Some are the remains of ringforts, the circular enclosed settlements that were the most common form of rural habitation in early medieval Ireland, roughly from the fifth to the twelfth centuries. Others are the traces of field boundaries, enclosures, or platforms associated with later agricultural use. Without specific survey data attached to this particular site, it is not possible to say which category it falls into, or whether it represents something more unusual. Clare is a county with a dense concentration of prehistoric and early medieval remains, from the limestone pavements of the Burren to the river valleys further east, and an unassuming rise or hollow in a field can occasionally turn out to be something considerably older than it appears.