What it may represent, however, is a fulacht fia, one of the most common and most mysterious monument types in the Irish archaeological record. These are ancient cooking sites, typically Bronze Age in date, where stones were heated in fire and then dropped into a water-filled trough to bring it to the boil. The characteristic horseshoe-shaped mound that results is formed from the cracked and shattered stones, discarded after use and piled up over centuries of repeated activity.

This particular site sits at the base of a gentle north-east-facing slope, positioned, as fulachtaí fia so often are, close to a reliable water source. The proximity to the flood-plain of the Inny would have made it well suited to that purpose. What makes the Rathmore location quietly notable is that it does not stand alone. A second fulacht fia lies roughly six metres to the north-east, suggesting that this small stretch of riverside ground saw repeated or concurrent use in prehistory. Whether the two sites represent the same community cooking at different moments, or some more specialised pattern of activity, is impossible to say from surface evidence alone. The mound here is poorly defined and low, meaning time and the surrounding landscape have done their work in softening whatever structure once existed.