There are nine of them in total, ranging considerably in size from roughly five metres by three and a half up to eighteen metres by thirteen, and at least seven are thought to have served a very specific industrial purpose: the slow, controlled burning of wood to produce charcoal.

Charcoal-making platforms, sometimes called hearths or pitsteads, were created by levelling a section of sloped ground to provide a stable, roughly circular or oval surface on which timber could be stacked, covered with turf and earth, and smouldered over several days with minimal air. The resulting charcoal burned hotter and cleaner than raw wood, making it essential for metalworking and smelting. That a cluster of such platforms sits within the orbit of the Glendalough monastic settlement is telling; early medieval monasteries were not purely contemplative places but functioned as centres of craft production, and the demand for worked metal, whether for bells, book-fittings, or tools, would have made a reliable charcoal supply genuinely important. Two of the nine platforms here may have served a different purpose altogether, interpreted as possible hut platforms, which would suggest the site supported some form of supervised or semi-permanent working presence rather than purely seasonal use. The site was documented by Healy in 1972.