Enclosures of this kind, whether the remains of a ringfort, a livestock pound, or a field boundary of much earlier origin, are among the most common and yet most quietly ambiguous monuments in rural Ireland. The term covers a wide range of structures, from the earthen banks of a rath, which would once have defined a farmstead in the early medieval period, to the drystone walls of a later cashel. Without knowing which type this is, Liscahane holds its own small mystery.

The townland of Liscahane lies in north Kerry, a part of the county where the landscape carries layer upon layer of occupation stretching back thousands of years. Kerry as a whole has an exceptionally dense concentration of archaeological monuments, partly because its western and northern reaches were never heavily industrialised, and partly because the boggy and rocky ground preserved earthworks that elsewhere were ploughed flat. An enclosure in this setting could belong to any number of periods, and the absence of detailed documentation only deepens the uncertainty. What is known is that it was considered significant enough to be recorded as a monument in its own right, which suggests something visible and substantial remains above ground.