What drainage machinery revealed was a deposit of burnt material roughly 5.5 metres long and 0.3 metres deep, visible now as a dark band across the vertical face of the bank. Further burnt material is scattered across the opposite bank and into the streambed itself, spread over an area of about 10.5 metres north-east to south-west and 4 metres north-west to south-east.

This kind of deposit is most likely what archaeologists call a burnt spread, the residue associated with fulachtaí fia, a class of prehistoric cooking or processing site found widely across Ireland and Britain. The typical interpretation is that stones were heated in a fire, then dropped into a water-filled trough to bring it to the boil, shattering and darkening the stones in the process. Over time, the cracked, fire-reddened stones and charcoal accumulated into the distinctive mounded or spread deposits that survive in boggy, low-lying ground. The rush-covered, level terrain around the Slievenaneav stream fits that pattern precisely. A second burnt spread lies roughly 100 metres to the south-east, suggesting this small stretch of ground saw repeated or prolonged activity at some point in the prehistoric period.