"Rath" is the Irish word for a ringfort, one of the circular earthwork enclosures built throughout Ireland during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries, and used primarily as farmsteads for the rural aristocracy and farming families of Gaelic society. That the place is still called Rathcrony suggests the monument was prominent enough, and persistent enough in the landscape, to define the locality entirely.

Ringforts of this kind typically consist of a raised circular area enclosed by one or more earthen banks and ditches, sometimes reinforced with stone. They served as domestic settlements, offering a degree of protection for people, livestock, and stores. Thousands survive across Ireland in varying states of preservation, scattered through farmland and scrub, many still visible from the air even when they have been largely levelled at ground level. The rath at Rathcrony is one such site, embedded in the quiet pastoral countryside of Clare, its name outlasting whatever physical form the monument retains today.