The rath at Carrowduff in County Clare is one such site, a circular earthwork enclosure of the kind that would have served as a farmstead and place of security during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. The word "rath" refers specifically to an earthen-banked enclosure, as distinct from a cashel, which is built from stone, and Clare, sitting at the edge of the Burren and its limestone plains, contains examples of both.

Ringforts were the basic unit of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically housing a single family and their livestock behind one or more concentric banks and ditches. The Carrowduff example sits within a townland whose name derives from the Irish "An Cheathrú Dubh", meaning the black quarter, a reference possibly to the colour or character of the land. Beyond its classification as a rath and its location in this corner of Clare, detailed records for this particular site remain sparse, which is itself a reminder of how much early medieval archaeology still awaits thorough documentation even in a country where the monuments are everywhere underfoot.