Enclosures of this kind are among the most common yet least understood features of the Irish countryside. They are broadly defined as areas of ground enclosed by earthen banks, ditches, stone walls, or some combination of these, and they turn up across every county, dating anywhere from the Bronze Age through to the early medieval period and beyond. Their purposes varied: some were settlements, some were related to farming or the management of livestock, others had ritual or ceremonial functions. Without more specific detail, it is difficult to say which of these applies here, and that uncertainty is itself a kind of invitation to look more closely at the ground.