It measures roughly eight metres north to south, seven metres east to west, and rises only about half a metre above the surrounding ground. The top is slightly concave, dipping inward in the way that tends to happen when the interior of such a mound has settled over centuries. This is a fulacht fia, a type of prehistoric cooking site found across Ireland in considerable numbers, usually beside a water source and almost always built from the same distinctive combination of fire-cracked stone and charcoal-blackened soil.

The mechanics of a fulacht fia are straightforward once explained. Stones were heated in a fire and then dropped into a water-filled trough, bringing the water to a boil quickly enough to cook meat. The cracked and spent stones were then discarded to the side, building up over repeated use into the characteristic horseshoe-shaped or oval mound that survives today. Most examples date to the Bronze Age, broadly spanning from around 2000 to 500 BC, though some sites continued in use later. The waterlogged area immediately to the east of the Gortroe mound, measuring roughly eight metres by two and a half metres, is likely the remnant of the trough or a natural feature that made the spot attractive in the first place. A field drain running just to the south of the mound appears to have clipped its southern edge slightly, so the full original extent may have been marginally larger than what survives. The site was recorded by Denis Power and uploaded to the national record in August 2011.

The site sits in the historic barony of Connello Lower, a largely rural part of County Limerick where this kind of low-profile archaeology tends to survive in field corners and rough ground rather than in managed landscapes. The mound is in pasture, so access would depend on landowner permission, and the marshy ground around it means that waterproof footwear is advisable in any season. There is nothing visually dramatic here; the interest lies in reading the landscape carefully, noting the slight depression at the mound's crown, the damp hollow to the east, and the way the whole arrangement still makes sense as a working site chosen for its proximity to water.