The word is an older Irish term for what is more commonly called a ringfort, and these circular earthwork enclosures are among the most numerous archaeological monuments in Ireland, with estimates running to forty or fifty thousand surviving examples across the island. Most were built during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries, and served as the enclosed farmsteads of farmers and minor lords. A raised bank of earth, sometimes doubled or tripled, surrounded a central living area; the whole thing was as much a marker of status as a practical defence against cattle raiders.

The Fieries rath sits quietly in this long tradition. The area around Fieries has been settled for millennia, with the east Kerry plain offering reasonably fertile ground and access to river systems draining toward the Laune and the sea. Raths in this part of Kerry tend to survive as earthworks rather than stone cashels, which are more characteristic of the stonier ground further west on the Iveragh and Dingle peninsulas. Many such sites passed into local folklore as fairy forts, a designation that historically offered them a degree of informal protection; farmers were often reluctant to plough through them or remove their banks, and this superstition has inadvertently preserved monuments that might otherwise have been levelled for agricultural convenience.