"Cartron" derives from the Irish "ceathrú", a quarter, once used as a unit of land division, while "Sheela" most likely refers to a personal name or possibly to the enigmatic carved female figures known as sheela-na-gigs, which appear on churches and castles across medieval Ireland. Whether or not there is any direct connection between the name and such a figure, the pairing is suggestive, and the presence of a recorded enclosure in this townland adds a quiet layer of archaeological interest to an otherwise unassuming patch of the Connacht landscape.

Enclosures of this kind, typically circular or subcircular banks and ditches delineating a defined area, are among the most common archaeological monument types in Ireland, yet individually they remain poorly understood. They may represent the remains of a ringfort, a type of early medieval farmstead used roughly between 500 and 1000 AD, or they could be of earlier prehistoric origin. Without excavation or detailed survey, it is difficult to say more about what Cartronsheela's enclosure once contained or who built it. The site is recorded as a monument, but detailed information has not yet been made publicly available, leaving it as one of many quietly catalogued places whose full story is still waiting to be told.