The subcircular pit, measuring roughly 1.3 by 1.2 metres and 43 centimetres deep, showed signs of having once been lined with clay. What makes this discovery particularly intriguing is the extensive burnt layer that covered it; a spread of charred material stretching 7.8 by 6.4 metres that archaeologists interpreted as the remains of an ancient bonfire, with another smaller burnt deposit located just to the northeast.

Analysis of the charcoal fragments revealed a mix of oak, hazel, and species from the hawthorn or mountain ash family, whilst radiocarbon dating of alder charcoal placed the pit firmly in the middle Bronze Age, between 1436 and 1309 BC. The pit also yielded an assemblage of flint and quartz artefacts consistent with Bronze Age craftsmanship, providing further evidence of the period’s material culture in this corner of Donegal.

This pit forms part of a remarkable concentration of Bronze Age monuments clustered around the earlier Neolithic cairn at Croaghonagh. Within a stone’s throw of the pit, archaeologists identified an Early Bronze Age wedge tomb 30 metres to the west, another middle Bronze Age burnt spread 25 metres to the southeast, and a Late Bronze Age fulacht fia (ancient cooking site) 30 metres to the northwest. Together, these discoveries paint a picture of a landscape that held significance for prehistoric communities across millennia, from the Neolithic period through various phases of the Bronze Age.