What was uncovered in 2006 is a fulacht fia, a type of prehistoric cooking or processing site found widely across Ireland, typically identified by a mound of burnt and shattered stone left behind after repeated heating. The stones were cracked by the thermal shock of being moved from fire into water, and over time that debris accumulated into the characteristic horseshoe-shaped or oval mounds that survive in fields and bogs today.

This particular example was excavated ahead of the M8/N8 Cullahill to Cashel Road Improvement Scheme, under licence E2387. The mound measured roughly 15.5 metres east to west and 17 metres north to south, though it rose only about 37 centimetres above the surrounding ground. It was composed of compact sandy silt packed with charcoal and heat-shattered stone, and beneath it lay three small pits filled with the same material, suggesting sustained and repeated use of the spot. A radiocarbon date obtained from a charcoal sample placed the activity firmly in the Bronze Age, between approximately 1670 and 1490 cal BC, a period when fulachta fia were in widespread use across the island. The wetland setting is entirely typical; these sites are almost always found near reliable sources of water, which was essential to their function, whatever that function ultimately was. Debate among archaeologists continues over whether they were primarily for cooking large quantities of meat, for bathing, for textile processing, or for some combination of all three.