That spare designation, enclosure, covers a surprisingly wide range of possibilities in the Irish archaeological landscape: a ringfort perhaps, which would make it the remains of an early medieval farmstead enclosed by an earthen bank and ditch; or possibly a ceremonial or burial enclosure of much older date. The word alone tells you that something deliberate was built here, that people chose this ground and drew a boundary around it, and that enough of it survives to have earned a place in the national record of monuments. Beyond that, the particulars remain elusive for now, the detailed record not yet publicly available.

Farranstephen is a small rural townland in Kerry, a county where enclosed sites of various periods are a fairly common feature of the agricultural landscape, many of them worn down to low earthworks and easily missed by a passing eye. The name Farranstephen suggests land historically associated with someone called Stephen, a personal name that arrived in Ireland with the Normans after the twelfth century, though the enclosure itself may be considerably older than the townland name. Without further detail it is impossible to say more about its date, its builders, or what it once enclosed, and it would be wrong to speculate.