The mound rests in a pastoral setting where the ground stays damp and low-lying, gradually rising as you move eastward from the stream. With the waterway measuring about 1.2 metres at its base and 1.8 metres deep, it would have provided a ready water source for the activities that created this distinctive archaeological site.

What remains today is a modest, D-shaped grass-covered mound stretching 12 metres in both directions and rising only 30 to 40 centimetres above the surrounding landscape. The straight edge of the D faces west, bordered directly by the stream, whilst the curved portion extends eastward into the pasture. Though it appears the mound was partially levelled at some point in its history, perhaps by farming activities, its composition remains telling; black soil mixed with heat-shattered stone fragments, the classic signature of a fulacht fiadh or burnt mound.

These burnt mounds, found scattered across the Irish landscape, are thought to date from the Bronze Age through to the medieval period. They were created through a process of heating stones in fires and then plunging them into water-filled troughs to boil the liquid for cooking, brewing, or possibly even bathing. The repeated heating and rapid cooling would cause the stones to fracture and shatter, eventually accumulating into the distinctive mounds we see today. This particular example at Clonca, whilst modest in scale, represents thousands of years of Irish history literally embedded in the landscape.