It belongs to a broad category of monument that could mean almost anything: a ringfort boundary, a field enclosure, a burial mound's eroded remains, or the remnant of a medieval farmstead. The term earthwork, in archaeological usage, simply denotes a feature formed by the deliberate shaping of soil and earth, and in Ireland such features survive in enormous numbers, many of them unexcavated and quietly anonymous.

What is known with certainty is that the site has been formally identified and assigned a monument record, placing it within the protected landscape of Irish archaeological heritage. Beyond that, the paper record has not yet been made publicly available in digital form, leaving the earthwork at Carnaun in a condition that is itself oddly atmospheric: officially recognised, geographically fixed, but effectively mute. Clare is a county with a dense concentration of prehistoric and early medieval remains, from the limestone karst of the Burren to the river valleys of the east, and earthworks of various kinds appear throughout, often overlooked beside the more legible stone monuments the county is known for.