It measures just over fifteen metres across in two directions and rises to about 0.8 metres at its highest point, modest dimensions that belie a long and still not entirely resolved prehistory. This is a fulacht fia, a type of site found in considerable numbers across Ireland and generally understood to represent an ancient cooking place, where stones were heated in fire and then dropped into a water-filled trough to bring it to the boil. The charred and shattered stones discarded after repeated use are what accumulated over time to form these distinctive burnt mounds.

What makes this particular example quietly remarkable is not the mound itself but its company. It is one of a cluster of five fulachta fiadh in the immediate area, a concentration that suggests this part of north Cork saw sustained or repeated activity rather than a single isolated episode of use. The horseshoe or crescent shape is characteristic of the type, formed by the gradual build-up of spent material on either side of the working trough, which itself often left little visible trace once abandoned. The opening in this case, some 3.5 metres wide, faces north-north-west, and while the significance of orientation at these sites is debated among archaeologists, the consistency of the form across so many Irish examples points to a recognised method of working rather than accident.