These enclosures, known in Irish as raths, were the most common form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically consisting of a circular bank and ditch enclosing a farmstead. Tens of thousands once existed across the island, and though many have been lost to agriculture and development, a significant number survive, often as low grassy mounds that a passing walker might easily mistake for a natural feature of the terrain.

Raths were generally built and occupied between roughly the fifth and twelfth centuries, serving as the homesteads of farming families across the social spectrum, from ordinary freeholders to local lords. The bank provided a degree of security for livestock and household members, and the interior would have contained timber or wattle structures used for dwelling and storage. In Clare, a county with a particularly dense concentration of early medieval remains, these earthworks appear across both the fertile lowlands and the limestone uplands of the Burren, each one a remnant of a settled agricultural world that predates any documentary record of the families who lived within them. The specific history of the Fintra More example, including its date of construction, condition, and any recorded finds or features, remains to be formally documented.