A fulacht fia is a burnt mound, the accumulated debris of a Bronze Age method of boiling water by heating stones in a fire and dropping them into a trough; the shattered, fire-cracked stones pile up over time into the characteristic horseshoe or oval shape that survives in the landscape long after everything else has gone. That four of these sites should sit so close together, on periodically waterlogged ground near a spring, gives this quiet corner of County Clare an oddly purposeful feel.

The mound itself is an irregular oval, roughly 9.5 metres east to west and 6 metres north to south, rising between half a metre and just under a metre above the surrounding ground. A slight indent on its northern side, about 2 metres wide and 0.6 metres deep, may mark where a trough once sat. The western end of the mound rests directly on bare rock outcrop, a reminder that this is karst country, where limestone lies close to the surface. A spring was recorded just to the north-west on the 1897 Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, and the ground to the north rises away from a damp, rush-covered area with periodic surface water; conditions that would have made this an attractive working site for whoever gathered here repeatedly in prehistory. The nearest companion mound lies only 3 metres to the south-south-east, with two others within 10 to 14 metres, suggesting sustained and organised use of the same water source over time.