A rath is the Irish term for a ringfort, the most common monument type in Ireland, built typically between the sixth and tenth centuries as a farmstead enclosure for an early medieval family of some local standing. Banks of earth, sometimes reinforced with stone, would surround a central living area, offering protection for people and livestock alike. That they are common does not make them unremarkable; they were the basic unit of rural life in early medieval Ireland, and finding one is, in a real sense, finding the address of a family whose name is now lost.

Illaun is a townland name that derives from the Irish word for island, oileán, and its use on inland ground often signals a patch of slightly elevated or dry land surrounded by wetter terrain, the kind of subtle topography that early farmers understood very well. A ringfort sited in such a spot would have made practical sense, the natural drainage of a low rise offering dry ground for building and a degree of visibility over the surrounding area. Clare is densely scattered with such monuments, reflecting the county's long history of pastoral farming in a landscape that has, in places, changed relatively little in its broad outlines since those enclosures were first thrown up.