It appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey six-inch map of 1839 and again on the 1948 revision, its outline apparently unchanged across more than a century of cartographic attention. That persistence on the map is itself a small curiosity: the enclosure was recognisable and distinct enough that surveyors, separated by over a hundred years, both felt the need to mark it down.

Raised circular enclosures of this kind are generally understood to be the earthwork remains of early settlement or activity, their banks built up over time through construction or the accumulation of occupation material. What makes the Ovenstown example particularly interesting is its proximity to a holy well called Toberakin, which lies roughly 20 metres to the south-west. Holy wells in Ireland are often ancient in origin, sometimes pre-Christian, and frequently associated with patterns of local devotion that continued well into the modern period. The clustering of an enclosure and a named holy well this close together is not unusual in the Irish landscape, but it does suggest that this corner of Kilkenny carried some significance, religious or otherwise, for a long stretch of time.