These features, known in Irish archaeology by the shorthand fulachta fiadh, are among the most common prehistoric monuments on the island, yet they remain poorly understood. The prevailing theory is that they functioned as cooking sites, where stones were heated in a fire and then dropped into a water-filled trough to bring it to the boil. Over time, the cracked and shattered stones were raked aside, forming the characteristically horseshoe-shaped or oval mounds of dark, fire-reddened debris that survive to this day.

The Camlin site produced four burnt mounds in total, three identified during initial testing and a fourth that came to light only once full excavation was under way. One of the features initially recorded as a burnt mound was later reassessed and found to be entirely natural, a deposit of blackened soil with no prehistoric activity behind it at all. It is a useful reminder that not every dark patch in the ground tells a human story. Of the confirmed mounds, one designated BM2 measured roughly seven metres in diameter and survived to a height of around twenty centimetres, modest dimensions but consistent with the kind of low spreads that centuries of ploughing and weathering leave behind.