They appear as low, horseshoe-shaped mounds, typically found close to water, and are generally dated to the Bronze Age, roughly 1500 to 500 BC. The standard interpretation holds that they were cooking sites: a trough dug into the ground and lined with wood or stone would be filled with water, and heated rocks dropped in would bring it to a boil, allowing meat to be cooked. The mound itself is the accumulated debris of those fire-cracked stones, discarded after each use. The example at Levallinree, in County Mayo, is one of many such sites recorded across the county, a region where the wet, boggy ground has preserved these features with particular fidelity.

Beyond its identification and location, the specific details of this site remain largely undocumented in any publicly accessible form at present. What can be said is that fulachta fia in the west of Ireland tend to cluster in lowland areas near streams or marshy ground, precisely the kind of terrain that characterises much of Mayo. Some researchers have proposed alternative uses for these sites beyond cooking, including textile processing or bathing, and the debate continues among archaeologists. The name itself, loosely translated from Irish as something like "cooking place of the deer" or "cooking pit of the wild animal", hints at an older tradition of associating these sites with hunting and outdoor feasting, though the etymology remains contested.