A kerb circle is essentially a ring of contiguous or closely set stones laid flat or slightly upright at ground level, defining a circular space, often associated with burial activity in the Bronze Age. Where stone circles draw the eye upward and passage tombs command hilltops, kerb circles have a low, almost reticent presence, easily mistaken for a field boundary or a natural scatter of rock by anyone not looking carefully.

The Tullakeel example is catalogued as part of the wider prehistoric monument landscape of south-west Kerry, a region that preserves an unusually dense concentration of Bronze Age and earlier remains, from standing stones and boulder burials to ring forts and ogham stones. Kerry's Atlantic seaboard was far from peripheral in prehistory; it lay along routes of movement and exchange that connected Ireland's western coast with Britain and continental Europe. Kerb circles in this region are generally associated with the earlier Bronze Age, roughly the second millennium BC, when communities marked burial places and perhaps ceremonial grounds with carefully arranged stone settings at or just below ground level.