The example at Ballydonagh in County Galway is exactly that kind of place: a circular earthwork sitting low in the landscape, defined by a bank of earth and stone roughly 27.5 metres in diameter, with the faint depression of an external fosse, or defensive ditch, still legible along its south-western arc.

Ringforts, known in Irish as raths when constructed primarily from earth and stone rather than stone alone, were the most common form of enclosed farmstead in early medieval Ireland, typically dating from around the sixth to the twelfth century. They served as protected enclosures for a family and their livestock, the surrounding bank and ditch making it harder for cattle raiders to move quickly in or out. At Ballydonagh, the structure survives in fair condition. A narrow gap of just under two metres on the east-south-east side may be the original entrance, which would be consistent with the eastward-facing openings found on many comparable sites. A second gap on the west-south-west, by contrast, looks to be a later, modern breach in the bank, of the kind that often appeared when farmland was reorganised and old earthworks became inconvenient obstacles rather than meaningful boundaries.