The site at Dooradoyle came to light in 1997 during topsoil stripping ahead of the N20/21 road improvement works, and what it revealed was a fulacht fia, the term used for a type of ancient burnt mound associated with outdoor cooking or food preparation, typically consisting of a water-filled trough and a crescent-shaped heap of fire-cracked stone discarded after repeated heating. They are among the most common prehistoric monument types in Ireland, yet this one carried an added complication: years of use as a sports ground had scraped and levelled the ground surface, compressing and truncating the buried deposits before any archaeologist had set eyes on them.

Audrey Gahan first identified the archaeological material under Licence No. 97E0289, with fulacht fia remains turning up in two of three monitored trenches. Excavations by Cia McConway later that year, working under an extension of the same licence, uncovered the site in more detail. The burnt mound had survived as two kidney-shaped arms oriented roughly north to south. The western arm measured 14.5 metres by 7 metres but only 0.15 metres deep, its blackened and heat-shattered stone badly compressed by the levelling activity above. The eastern arm was more substantial at 22.5 metres by 9 metres and 0.5 metres deep, its stone driven down into the soft natural clay beneath. Between these two arms lay a central clay-lined trough, roughly 2.58 metres by 2 metres and 0.54 metres deep, cut through the subsoil, with a shallower basin feature along its western edge. A second, unlined trough to the east of the mound held post-holes in each corner, interpreted as the supports for a small wooden frame, probably a spit. A cluster of stake-holes around the eastern edge of this second trough may have held a windbreak, suggesting that cooking activity extended beyond the main mound and trough arrangement.

The site no longer exists as a visible feature; it was excavated ahead of construction and the records now reside in the archaeological literature rather than in the landscape. Two related monuments sit nearby, an enclosure approximately 55 metres to the west and a second fulacht fia around 45 metres to the north, suggesting this was once a more extensive area of prehistoric activity on the edge of what is now a busy Limerick suburb. For those interested in following up the excavation results directly, the summary appears on excavations.ie under the 1997 entry, reference 1997:338 and 1997:339, where McConway's account of the greasy black clay and heat-shattered stone gives a more vivid sense of the site than its current, built-over setting ever could.