Enclosures of this kind are among the most common and quietly mysterious features of the Irish countryside, ranging from prehistoric ring-forts, known as raths, to early medieval farmsteads defined by earthen banks or stone walls that once separated domestic life from the wider world. They could serve as boundaries for livestock, as defended homesteads, or as markers of social status, and they survive in their thousands across Ireland, many still visible as low earthworks or crop marks in grass.