A cashel is a type of ringfort built from dry-stone walling rather than earthen banks, and they are among the most numerous archaeological monuments in Ireland, yet individually they are frequently overlooked, their circular outlines softened by centuries of grass and weather until they read more as natural features than as the remains of early medieval farmsteads.

Ringforts of both the earthen and stone-built varieties were constructed predominantly during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries, and served as enclosed homesteads for farming families, the enclosing wall or bank providing protection for livestock as much as for people. The cashel at Corgarve belongs to this broad tradition, though the specific details of its construction, its dimensions, and any recorded finds or associations particular to this site remain, for the moment, unconfirmed in the public record.