It measures roughly 8.8 metres along its north-west to south-east axis and about 8 metres across, rising only 0.6 metres above the surrounding ground. What makes it quietly strange is what it is made of: not earth or stone in any conventional sense, but a compacted mass of burnt and fire-cracked material, the accumulated debris of prehistoric cooking activity.

This is a fulacht fia, a type of ancient cooking site found in enormous numbers across Ireland, particularly in low-lying or waterlogged ground. The typical interpretation is that a trough would be dug into the earth and filled with water, then heated by dropping fire-cracked stones into it until the water boiled. The shattered, blackened stones were then raked out and piled to the side, and over repeated use across many seasons or generations, these discarded heaps built up into the distinctive low mounds that archaeologists still find today. Most fulachtaí fia date to the Bronze Age, though some sites show evidence of use across longer periods. What makes the Curraghagalla example particularly interesting is that it does not stand alone. A second fulacht fia lies approximately 10 metres to the south-east, the two mounds sitting close enough together to suggest that this small stretch of north Cork farmland was a place people returned to repeatedly, for purposes that were evidently practical, perhaps communal, and carried out often enough to leave a lasting mark on the landscape.