The one at Lisleagh in north Cork is exactly that kind of site: an oval mound of burnt stone and soil, measuring roughly eight metres by six, and rising only a quarter of a metre above the surrounding ground. Easy to miss, easy to dismiss, and yet it represents a form of prehistoric activity that appears in the thousands across Ireland.

A fulacht fia, sometimes spelled fulacht fiadh, is the remains of an ancient outdoor cooking or heating site. The typical method involved heating stones in a fire, then dropping them into a water-filled trough to bring the water to a boil. The cracked and heat-shattered stones were discarded repeatedly over time, building up the characteristic mound of dark, burnt material that survives today. The sites are generally dated to the Bronze Age, roughly 1500 to 500 BC, though some have produced earlier or later dates. What makes the Lisleagh example quietly compelling is not any single feature but its company: a second fulacht fiadh sits approximately forty metres to the south-west. Two of these sites in such close proximity suggests repeated or sustained use of this particular spot, perhaps drawing on a nearby water source now long altered or invisible.