The sites belong to a category of monument known as a fulacht fia, a type of ancient outdoor cooking place typically found near water, consisting of a fire-cracked stone mound and a trough that would have been filled with water and heated by dropping in stones until boiling. They are among the most common prehistoric monuments in Ireland, yet the cluster at Sraghgaddy is unusual in its density and in the circumstances of its discovery.

The first edition Ordnance Survey map showed the area as marshy ground with a stream running from north-west to south-east, exactly the kind of low-lying, waterlogged terrain where fulachta fiadh tend to appear. By the time of the 1900 revision, a railway line cutting north-east to south-west had already altered the landscape. It was drainage work associated with the Land Project that eventually brought the sites to light: according to O'Kelly, writing in 1969, fulachta fiadh were uncovered near the railway line in 1959 during those operations. Prendergast had noted the area slightly earlier, recording in 1955 at least six fulacht fia sites in Shraghgaddy townland within the barony of Gowran. The six sites were each assigned individual record numbers, though to date none of them has been precisely located within the townland.