At a site near Ballinaclogh, lying between the towns of Newtownmountkennedy and Ballynabarney, two ancient hearths came to light beneath ground that had otherwise given little indication of what lay beneath it. A hearth, in an archaeological context, is among the most intimate finds a dig can produce: the physical remains of fire-making, sometimes little more than a patch of scorched earth, charcoal, and heat-cracked stone, yet carrying within it the possibility of radiocarbon dating and evidence of human occupation across a wide span of prehistory and history.

The hearths were excavated in 2003 under licence number 03E1038, with the findings later published by Lynch in 2005. Their discovery was a direct consequence of the road improvement scheme for the N11 corridor, a stretch of east Wicklow that links the coastal towns south of Dublin with the inland routes towards Arklow. Rescue excavations of this kind, carried out ahead of construction, routinely produce evidence of activity that would otherwise be lost entirely once groundworks begin. In this case, two separate hearths suggest at minimum two episodes of occupation or use, though the notes do not specify their date, their relationship to one another, or what other material, if any, was recovered alongside them.