A rath is a type of ringfort, an enclosed circular settlement typically defined by one or more earthen banks and ditches, constructed during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Tens of thousands of them once existed across Ireland, making them among the most common archaeological monument types in the country, yet each one represents a particular family or farming household, a specific patch of ground that mattered to specific people.

Ringforts served primarily as farmsteads, the enclosing bank offering protection for livestock as much as for people. The term rath specifically refers to those built from earth, as distinct from a cashel or caher, which uses dry-stone walling and tends to appear more frequently in the stonier west of Ireland. Clare, sitting at the edge of the Burren and its surrounding lowlands, contains examples of both types, and the presence of a rath at Drumline fits a pattern of dense early medieval settlement across the county's interior. Beyond its classification and its location, the documentary record for this particular site is thin.