That ambiguity is itself telling. Ireland's landscape is scattered with earthen mounds of widely varying origin and purpose, ranging from prehistoric burial cairns and early medieval ring barrows to later landscape features such as ornamental mounts constructed within demesne gardens. Without documentation, distinguishing one from another is a matter for excavation or close specialist survey, and this particular example has yet to receive either in any published form.

Dromoland itself has a long and layered history, most visibly associated with the O'Brien family, descendants of Brian Boru, who held lands in this part of Clare for centuries. The present Dromoland Castle dates largely from the early nineteenth century, though earlier structures occupied the site before it. Earthworks on such estates can belong to almost any period. A mound might predate the demesne entirely, representing a much older presence in the landscape, or it might be a deliberate landscape feature added during the eighteenth or nineteenth century when designed grounds were fashionable and artificial mounds were sometimes raised as viewing platforms or focal points within a park. The lack of uploaded records means the question remains open.