This is a fulacht fia, a type of prehistoric cooking site found in enormous numbers throughout Ireland, typically identified by the characteristic spread of darkened, shattered stone that accumulates when rocks are repeatedly heated and plunged into water to bring it to the boil. The term itself is sometimes translated loosely as "deer roast" or "wild deer cooking place", though the true range of uses, whether for cooking, bathing, textile processing, or brewing, remains a subject of ongoing discussion among archaeologists.

The location beside a well is entirely consistent with what is understood about these sites. Fulachtaí fia, as they are known collectively, are almost always found close to a reliable water source, a stream, a spring, or a boggy hollow, since the whole process depended on filling a water trough and maintaining a sustained supply. The burnt mound itself, the low, spread crescent or horseshoe-shaped heap of debris that marks the site, builds up gradually over many uses as cracked stone is discarded beside the trough. In Lisladeen, the spread of burnt material surviving in cultivated ground suggests the mound has been reduced or disturbed by ploughing over time, which is a common fate for these low-lying earthworks. Most fulachtaí fia in Ireland date to the Bronze Age, broadly speaking the period between roughly 2000 and 500 BC, though some sites show evidence of use across a longer span.