When a field at Ballinamona, on a gentle west-facing hillside slope in County Wicklow, was turned over in 2005, it revealed two spreads of charcoal and heat-shattered stones lying roughly ten metres apart, quiet evidence of activity that had been sealed beneath the soil for a very long time.

What came to light belongs to a category of prehistoric site known as a burnt mound, one of the most common yet least understood monument types in Ireland. The typical burnt mound consists of a spread or low mound of fire-cracked stones and charcoal, the debris left behind when stones were repeatedly heated and plunged into water-filled troughs or pits, probably to boil the water. They are generally associated with the Bronze Age, and their purpose has been debated for generations, with suggestions ranging from cooking to bathing to textile processing. The Ballinamona example is modest in scale but notable in having two distinct spreads in close proximity, hinting that the same patch of hillside was used more than once, or that two separate activities were taking place side by side.