What makes this earthwork quietly puzzling is that it forms no obvious pattern. Most earthworks of archaeological significance betray some logic on the ground, the geometry of a enclosure, the straight spine of a field boundary, the defensive arc of a rampart. Here, the arrangement resists easy interpretation.

The most plausible explanation is also, in a sense, the most mundane: the banks may simply be upcast soil thrown up from drainage trenches dug to manage the waterlogged conditions of the surrounding land. In a part of Connacht where boggy, low-lying ground was a persistent obstacle to cultivation and settlement, cutting drainage channels and piling the spoil to one side was routine agricultural work, carried out across many centuries. The proximity to Fartamore Castle suggests the earthworks may relate to some phase of activity associated with the castle and its estate, though no specific date or historical episode has been firmly attached to them.