During ground works at Ballynamuddagh in 2000, archaeological monitors uncovered a fulacht fia alongside two hearths and a pit, a cluster of prehistoric features that had lain undisturbed beneath the soil until construction machinery gave reason to look.

A fulacht fia is a type of burnt mound, typically Bronze Age in date, associated with the repeated heating of stones and their use to boil water in a trough or pit. The mounds are among the most commonly found prehistoric monuments in Ireland, yet each discovery adds a little more texture to our understanding of where people lived, worked, and gathered. At Ballynamuddagh, the two hearths and the pit were fully excavated under licence, but the fulacht fia itself was only partially investigated, with work confined to its western extent. What lies beneath the rest of it remains, for now, unexamined.