Ferromagnetic metal rings of nanometre range widths and thicknesses exhibit fundamentally new spin states, switching behaviour and spin dynamics, which can be precisely controlled via geometry, material composition and applied field. Following the discovery of the 'onion state', which mediates the switching to and between vortex states, a range of fascinating phenomena has been found in these structures. In this overview of our work on ring elements, we first show how the geometric parameters of ring elements determine the exact equilibrium spin configuration of the domain walls of rings in the onion state, and we show how such behaviour can be understood as the result of the competition between the exchange and magnetostatic energy terms. Electron transport provides an extremely sensitive probe of the presence, spatial location and motion of domain walls, which determine the magnetic state in individual rings, while magneto-optical measurements with high spatial resolution can be used to probe the switching behaviour of ring structures with very high sensitivity. We illustrate how the ring geometry has been used for the study of a wide variety of magnetic phenomena, including the displacement of domain walls by electric currents, magnetoresistance, the strength of the pinning potential introduced by nanometre size constrictions, the effect of thermal excitations on the equilibrium state and the stochastic nature of switching events.