It is recorded as an enclosure, a broad category in Irish archaeology that covers anything from a prehistoric ringfort to a medieval monastic boundary, typically defined by a bank, ditch, or wall that marks off a space from its surroundings. The fact of its existence is established; the details of what it is, who made it, and when, remain largely unshared.

Boyhollagh is a rural townland in Mayo, a county with exceptional archaeological density, where enclosed settlements of one kind or another appear across centuries of continuous habitation. Enclosures in this region can date from the Bronze Age through to the early medieval period, and many survive as subtle earthworks, their outlines visible as slight rises or depressions in pasture land. Without further specific documentation for this particular site, its age, form, and function remain open questions, which is itself a kind of fact worth sitting with. Many of Ireland's recorded monuments exist in exactly this condition, known to be there, marked on maps, but not yet fully examined or explained.