It was, in fact, the remains of a fulacht fia, a type of prehistoric cooking site found widely across Ireland, typically consisting of a mound of fire-cracked stones discarded after repeated use, a water-filled trough, and a nearby hearth. The stones would be heated in a fire and dropped into the trough to bring the water to a boil, a technique that worked with surprising efficiency. This particular example sat on a gentle north-east facing slope at the western edge of a boggy area, with a stream running about 100 metres to the north-east, providing the water supply the whole arrangement depended upon.

The site came to light properly in 1999, when it was excavated ahead of construction work on the N8 Glanmire-Watergrasshill Bypass. Before the diggers moved in, the mound measured roughly 15 metres north to south and 14 metres east to west, rising to a maximum height of about half a metre, its interior a dense mix of heat-shattered stones and charcoal-enriched soil. Excavation uncovered a rectangular unlined trough, approximately 2.1 metres wide and 1.3 metres long, dug to a depth of about 0.3 metres into the ground. The hearth occupied a horseshoe-shaped shelf immediately to the west of the trough, a sensible arrangement that kept the fire close to hand while stones were heated and transferred. Post-holes positioned to the north and south of the trough suggested some kind of timber structure once stood here, possibly enclosing the northern end of the trough or forming part of the hearth complex itself. About 1.6 metres to the east, excavators found a large oval pit, roughly 2.9 metres by 2.2 metres and 0.6 metres deep, whose purpose remains unclear. The excavation was led by Cotter, whose reports from 2000 remain the primary record of what was found.