This is a fulacht fia, a type of prehistoric cooking site found in considerable numbers across Ireland, typically in low-lying or boggy ground near water. The basic principle involves heating stones in a fire, then dropping them into a water-filled trough to bring it rapidly to the boil. What makes the Cork example unusual is the detail preserved and recorded from its excavation, which revealed a working complex of considerable sophistication.

The site was excavated by M. J. O'Kelly in 1951, and his findings were published in 1954 under the designation Ballyvourney I. The central trough was wedge-shaped, roughly 1.8 metres long, a metre wide, and 0.4 metres deep, its long axis running northwest to southeast. Its sides were constructed from birch and oak planking, with the pit cut into peat and packed with moss and peat around the outside. O'Kelly suggested the moss functioned as a coarse filter, allowing water to seep slowly through rather than flood the trough uncontrolled. A single oak plank lay on the floor at the northwest end. Two hearths served the trough at different periods: the primary hearth, defined by an arc of six low stones opening towards the trough, was eventually covered with flagstones after it fell out of use; the secondary hearth, larger and marked by eleven embedded slabs, replaced it at the northwest end. To the northeast sat a stone-lined pit, its floor paved with slabs, its stones fire-cracked and blackened; O'Kelly interpreted this as an oven. The wooden hut to the southwest was oval, defined by ten post holes spanning 5.6 metres on its long axis, with internal features that may have served as a sleeping platform or butcher's block, a probable meat rack, and a small pit cut into the floor. The dump of burnt, broken stone spread across the site amounted to a calculated 27 cubic metres of material. Finds were sparse but included five stone discs and a stone pounder. After excavation, the site was reconstructed and cooking experiments were carried out to test how the whole system actually functioned in practice.