It measures roughly nine metres north to south and seven metres east to west, rising only about forty-five centimetres above the surrounding ground. That modest hump, however, is composed almost entirely of burnt and fire-cracked stone, which is precisely what makes it extraordinary.

This is a fulacht fia, a type of prehistoric cooking site found in very large numbers across Ireland, particularly in low-lying, waterlogged areas close to streams or springs. The basic principle was straightforward: stones were heated in a fire, then dropped into a water-filled trough, bringing the water rapidly to a boil. Over repeated use, the stones shattered from thermal shock and were discarded in a heap beside the trough. That discarded heap is what survives as the characteristic horseshoe-shaped or oval mound seen at sites like this one. Fulachtaí fia date broadly to the Bronze Age, though some examples have produced dates ranging from the Neolithic into the early medieval period. The siting of the Imogane example follows a pattern seen consistently across Ireland: close to a water source, in this case within six metres of a stream, and in low-lying agricultural ground where the features have been preserved beneath pasture rather than disturbed by tillage or development.

The mound sits on the western side of a field fence, which gives some sense of how these ancient landscape features get absorbed quietly into the working countryside, their outlines softened by centuries of grass and grazing. What looks like a slight rise in a field turns out, on closer inspection, to carry the accumulated evidence of repeated, organised activity stretching back perhaps three thousand years or more.