For years it sat in the archaeological record under the broad label of simply "Enclosure", a catch-all term that can cover everything from early medieval ringforts to stock enclosures of uncertain age. What makes this particular example slightly unusual is the specific classification it eventually received: a fionnán enclosure, a type identified and discussed by archaeologists Muiris O'Sullivan and Laurence Sheehan in their 1992 study of the Iveragh Peninsula.

A fionnán enclosure takes its name from fionnán grass, the coarse, tufted vegetation that tends to colonise marginal and upland ground in the west of Ireland. The term refers to enclosures found in rough, unimproved land of this kind, and their function and date are not always straightforward to determine. They were identified as a distinct category precisely because the landscape they occupy sets them apart from the more familiar ringfort found on better agricultural ground. The Gortacloghane example was reclassified from its earlier designation in the Sites and Monuments Record to reflect this more precise understanding, a small but meaningful shift in how the site is interpreted within the broader archaeology of Kerry.