No mound, no hollow, no marker in the wet meadow ground to suggest that anything of archaeological interest lies beneath. Yet somewhere in that gently undulating pasture in County Tipperary, a fulacht fia sits buried, invisible from the surface, known only because a gas pipeline happened to cut through it in 1986.

A fulacht fia is a type of prehistoric cooking site found in great numbers across Ireland, typically consisting of a trough dug into the ground, a hearth for heating stones, and a mound of shattered, fire-cracked rock built up from repeated use. They are almost always found near water, which explains the wet, lush character of the meadow at Crehanagh. When the pipeline excavation work broke ground in 1986, the dig exposed the site and it was recorded under excavation reference BW/18/5, with the findings subsequently published by Gowen in 1988. It is the kind of discovery that happens not through deliberate archaeological investigation but through the accidental intrusion of modern infrastructure into ancient ground, a reminder of how much remains undetected beneath ordinary-looking fields.