While thousands of ringforts survive across Ireland, representing the enclosed farmsteads of early medieval families roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries, individual sites vary considerably in their state of preservation, their histories, and the degree of attention they have received. This one, for now, remains largely unwritten.

Ringforts of the cashel variety are particularly associated with the west of Ireland, where surface stone was plentiful and earth banking less practical. Clare has a notable concentration of them, shaped by the limestone geology of the Burren and its fringes. A cashel typically consists of a circular or oval area enclosed by one or more thick stone walls, sometimes with internal features such as souterrains, which are underground stone-lined passages thought to serve as storage or refuge spaces, or the foundations of domestic buildings. The townland name Licknaun may itself carry traces of older Irish place-name layers, though without further documentation the specific history of this particular enclosure, its period of use, any excavation, or its current condition on the ground, cannot be drawn out with any confidence.