The one at Knockadangan in County Clare is among them: a rath, which is the term for a ringfort built from earthen banks rather than stone, enclosing what would once have been a farmstead or small settlement.

Raths were the dominant form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, constructed roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. A typical example would have consisted of one or more circular banks and ditches surrounding a central living area, sheltering a family and their livestock from both the elements and opportunistic raiding. Clare is particularly rich in these structures, sitting as it does in a region where early Gaelic society persisted with considerable continuity across the early medieval period. The Knockadangan rath fits into this broader pattern, a quiet remnant of a farming life organised around kinship, cattle, and the rhythms of an agrarian year that stretched across many centuries.