That act of enclosure, of drawing a line between inside and outside, is one of the oldest and most persistent impulses in Irish settlement history. Enclosures appear across the island in dozens of forms, from the circular earthen ringforts that housed early medieval farmsteads to the drystone cashels of the western seaboard, and each one represents a decision about space, ownership, and protection that was meaningful enough to leave a mark on the land for centuries or millennia.