But at Seskin, somewhere beneath the flat grassland east of a minor stream, the blade turned up something older and stranger: a spread of burnt stone and charcoal, the trace of ancient fire preserved in the earth.

This kind of find is known in Irish archaeology as a burnt spread or, in its more structured form, a fulacht fiadh, a type of site found in considerable numbers across Ireland. The typical interpretation is that such deposits represent the debris of a cooking method involving fire-heated stones dropped into water-filled troughs or pits, though their exact purpose remains a matter of ongoing discussion among archaeologists. The stones crack and blacken with repeated heating and cooling, and the discarded fragments accumulate alongside charcoal into the characteristic dark, spreads that survive long after the organic material associated with them has vanished. At Seskin, the location fits a pattern seen at many similar sites: low-lying ground near water, here with both a small stream and a spring close by, the kind of reliable water source that would have made such a place practical and worth returning to. The valley floor setting, sheltered and well-watered, suggests a deliberate choice rather than accident.