Recorded separately from the monastic complex is an enclosure, a discrete archaeological feature that sits in the broader landscape around Jerpoint and suggests the area held significance beyond the twelfth-century foundation that draws most visitors today. Enclosures of this kind can take many forms, from the circular earthen banks of early medieval ringforts to the more irregular boundaries that defined monastic precincts or settlement zones, and without fuller documentation it is difficult to say with certainty which tradition this one belongs to.

What can be said is that Jerpoint as a place has a layered past that predates the Cistercians. The abbey was founded around 1160, originally under Benedictine rule before being adopted by the Cistercian order, and the land around it would have been actively managed, farmed, and possibly inhabited for centuries before that. An enclosure in this vicinity could relate to any number of periods or functions, whether an earlier ecclesiastical boundary, an agricultural enclosure associated with the monastic grange system the Cistercians were known to operate, or something older still. The Nore valley attracted settlement across many periods, and features that appear unremarkable at ground level often carry considerable archaeological weight.