Where a typical ringfort relies on a raised earthen bank to define its circular space, a cashel achieves the same effect with dry-stone walling, a construction method particularly common in the rocky terrain of the west of Ireland where suitable building material lay ready to hand. These enclosures were the farmsteads of early medieval Ireland, roughly dating from the period between the fifth and twelfth centuries, and they once numbered in their tens of thousands across the country. That so many survive at all, even in ruinous form, speaks to the durability of the form.

Bealkelly lies in a part of Clare where the underlying geology and the patterns of early settlement intersect in ways that rewarded those who farmed here more than a thousand years ago. The cashel type is well represented across this county and into neighbouring Galway and Kerry, wherever limestone or other workable stone came close to the surface. The specific history of this particular enclosure, its dimensions, its condition, any souterrains or internal features it might contain, and any record of the family or community that once lived within its walls, remain to be fully documented in the public record. What is certain is its classification as a cashel ringfort, placing it within one of the most significant categories of field monument in Ireland.