A cashel is a ringfort built from stone rather than earth and timber, a circular enclosure whose dry-stone walls once defined the boundary of a farmstead, a family's claim on the land, and sometimes a degree of social standing. Where earthen ringforts, known as raths, were thrown up from the soil beneath them, cashels relied on whatever rock the local geology offered, and in the west of Ireland that was rarely in short supply.

Ringforts of both kinds were built predominantly during the early medieval period, roughly from the fifth to the twelfth centuries, though many remained in use or were adapted long after that. They are among the most numerous field monuments in Ireland, with tens of thousands recorded across the island, yet each one represents a specific household, a specific choice of ground, a reading of the terrain for shelter, drainage, and defence. The cashel at Moyna is one such site, its precise history, dimensions, and condition currently undocumented in publicly available form.