The furnace was not large, roughly oval in shape and measuring about 1.25 metres north to south and a metre across, with a shallow depth of 35 centimetres. A short flue, also about 35 centimetres long, extended from its northern edge, the kind of channel that would have drawn air into the fire to sustain the intense heat needed to smelt or work iron.

The site was excavated in 2004, following the discovery during pre-development monitoring. Iron smelting furnaces of this kind were once scattered across the Irish landscape, small-scale operations in which local smiths reduced iron ore into workable metal using charcoal as fuel. The slag found inside, a glassy or stony by-product left behind when iron is separated from its ore, is one of the most reliable indicators archaeologists have for identifying such sites. Its presence here, alongside the charcoal fill, leaves little ambiguity about what the furnace was used for, even if the precise period of its use was not recorded in the available findings.