Cairns, at their most basic, are deliberate accumulations of stone, raised by human hands, and in an Irish context they most commonly mark prehistoric burial sites or prominent points in the terrain. Clare is well supplied with such monuments, the Burren alone accounting for a dense concentration of megalithic remains, but Gortnascreeny's cairn belongs to a quieter category: the kind of site that has been noted, assigned a record, and then left to wait.