The term covers a broad range of structures, from prehistoric ceremonial ringforts to early medieval farmstead boundaries, and without further detail it is often impossible to say at a glance which tradition a given example belongs to. That ambiguity is itself part of what makes such sites worth paying attention to. Mayo is a county thick with unexcavated monuments, many of them sitting quietly in the landscape, noted but not yet fully understood.

At present, the available record for this particular site is too sparse to say anything certain about its date, dimensions, or original purpose. What can be said is that enclosures in this part of Connacht frequently turn out to be the remains of raths or ringforts, the circular enclosed farmsteads that were the standard form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, roughly from the fifth to the twelfth centuries. Others prove to be much older, associated with Bronze Age or Iron Age activity. Without excavation or detailed survey data, the enclosure at Lack holds its history close.