Enclosures of this type are among the most common, and most enigmatic, monuments in the Irish landscape. The term covers a broad range of structures, from early ecclesiastical enclosures that once defined the boundaries of monastic communities, to secular ringforts used as defended farmsteads during the early medieval period, to prehistoric enclosures whose original purpose remains genuinely uncertain. What they share is a boundary, whether earthen bank, ditch, or stone wall, that once separated an interior space from the world outside.