The example at Lissanair in County Clare is no exception: a rath, which is the Irish term for a roughly circular earthen enclosure, typically formed by one or more banks and ditches, built during the early medieval period and used as a farmstead or place of shelter by a family of some local standing.

Raths were constructed predominantly between the sixth and twelfth centuries, though many remained in use or were adapted long after that. The name Lissanair itself is telling: "lios" is the Irish word for a fort or enclosure of this kind, suggesting that the monument was significant enough to define the place long after anyone could remember who built it or why. Clare is particularly well supplied with such sites, sitting as it does in a region where early medieval settlement left deep marks on the landscape, from the limestone uplands of the Burren down into the more sheltered lowland parishes.

Because the source material for this particular site is presently limited, the finer details of Lissanair's dimensions, condition, or local history remain to be confirmed through further research. What can be said is that ringforts of this type are rarely dramatic in appearance. Centuries of farming have often reduced the banks to low swells in a field, easily missed unless the light is at a low angle and the grass is short, which is when the underlying geometry of these ancient enclosures tends to reassert itself most clearly.