The one at Ballybeg in County Kerry is a quiet example of a type that appears almost everywhere in Ireland, typically as a low, horseshoe-shaped mound of fire-cracked stones, dark soil, and charcoal, sitting close to a water source. The name is sometimes translated as "wild deer cooking place", though the cooking interpretation, while plausible, remains debated. What is agreed is that these sites date broadly to the Bronze Age, and that they involve the repeated heating of stones, which were then dropped into water-filled troughs to bring the water to a boil.

The basic method is straightforward enough: stones were heated in a fire, carried to a trough, usually timber-lined and sunk into the ground, and used to heat large quantities of water rapidly. As the stones cracked and became useless, they were discarded to the sides, gradually building up the characteristic mound. Whether the purpose was cooking, bathing, textile processing, or something else entirely is a question that has occupied archaeologists for decades without a settled answer. Some sites show evidence of small associated structures, suggesting activities beyond a simple outdoor hearth. The Ballybeg example sits within a county that has produced a considerable number of these monuments, Kerry's boggy, water-rich landscape being well suited to their preservation.