The pit measured just 1.6 metres by 1.23 metres and sat barely 0.4 metres deep, yet it was central to a process that left a distinctive and durable mark in the archaeological record. A fulacht fia, to give it its Irish name, is a type of prehistoric cooking site, typically consisting of a water-filled trough into which fire-heated stones were dropped to bring the liquid to a boil. The stones crack and shatter with repeated heating and quenching, and it is precisely this accumulation of fire-cracked stone, compacted with charcoal-rich silty clay, that fills the trough here and made it recognisable to archaeologists thousands of years later.

The site came to light not through a targeted research dig but as a result of infrastructure work. A geophysical survey was carried out under licence 08R029, followed by excavation under licence 10E0121, both conducted in advance of the Portrane, Donabate and Lusk Waste Water Treatment scheme. The excavation revealed, roughly 3.3 metres to the north of the trough itself, three thin spreads of burnt mound material, the discarded heap of used and broken stone that typically accumulates beside a fulacht fia after repeated use. A sample of hazel charcoal recovered from the site was sent for radiocarbon dating and returned a calibrated Early Bronze Age date of 2272 to 2037 BC, placing activity here during a period when communities across Ireland were making regular use of these outdoor cooking or processing sites. The findings were reported by McQuade in 2011.

Because the site was excavated as part of a development project rather than preserved in place, there is nothing to see at ground level today. Its value is documentary rather than physical, a data point in the broader picture of prehistoric settlement and land use along the north Dublin coastline. For those interested in the wider context, the area around Portraine and Donabate has yielded various traces of early occupation, and the general landscape of low-lying ground close to water is precisely the kind of environment where fulachta fia tend to cluster. The published record, cited through McQuade 2011, remains the primary resource for anyone wishing to follow up the detail of what was found.