The mound measured roughly 4.4 metres east to west and 3.5 metres north to south, though it had already been truncated, meaning part of it had been cut away or disturbed before excavation began.

What was uncovered belongs to a class of prehistoric site known as a fulacht fia, the most common type of Bronze Age monument found in Ireland. The typical interpretation is that these sites functioned as outdoor cooking places: a trough, often timber-lined or stone-lined, would be filled with water, and stones heated in a nearby fire would then be dropped in to bring the water to a boil. Over time, the cracked and discarded burnt stones accumulated into the characteristic horseshoe-shaped mound that archaeologists now recognise. The location at Macreddin fits the pattern well; fulachtaí fia are almost always found near a water source, and the adjacency to a small stream here follows that convention closely. The excavation was carried out under licence in advance of the holiday cottage development, a now-standard requirement when construction threatens sites of potential archaeological significance.