A fulacht fia, the term used for a class of ancient cooking or processing site typically associated with the Bronze Age, leaves no visible trace here at ground level, yet the site is a recognised archaeological feature all the same, noted in the landscape rather than on it.

Fulachtaí fia are among the most numerous archaeological monuments in Ireland. They generally survive as horseshoe-shaped mounds of fire-cracked stone and charcoal-rich soil, the accumulated debris of a process in which stones were heated in a fire and then dropped into a water-filled trough to bring the water to a boil. The site at Coan sits on the northern bank of what is now a dried-up, meandering stream channel, a detail that fits the pattern well, since proximity to water was essential to however the site functioned. The valley of the Coon river provided that resource, though the particular stream beside which this mound was built has long since dried up. The site was identified by Prendergast in a survey published in 1977, and the surrounding land has since been reclaimed as agricultural grassland, which is almost certainly why the mound itself has been levelled or buried to the point of invisibility.