In Irish placename convention, "rath" denotes a ringfort, one of the circular earthwork enclosures that were the dominant form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically dating from roughly the fifth to the twelfth centuries. That the townland is named after one suggests the structure was significant enough, and visible enough, to become a local landmark long before anyone thought to formally record it.

Ringforts, known variously as raths or lios depending on regional usage, were generally built as enclosed farmsteads, their earthen banks and ditches defining a protected space for a family, their livestock, and their outbuildings. Thousands survive across Ireland in varying states of preservation, some reduced to faint cropmarks, others still rising several metres from the surrounding fields. The rath at Rathoma belongs to this broad tradition, a reminder that the landscape of County Mayo was as thoroughly settled and organised in the early medieval period as anywhere else on the island. The townland name itself functions as a kind of informal monument, preserving the memory of the structure even when the physical remains may be modest or difficult to read on the ground.

Beyond its presence in the placename record, detailed information about this particular site remains sparse, which is itself not unusual for the many thousands of ringforts catalogued across the country. What is clear is that the rath gave Rathoma its identity, and that somewhere within the townland, the earthworks that prompted that name still exist in some form, quietly outlasting the people who built them.