These ancient cooking sites, found in their thousands across Ireland, typically consist of a horseshoe-shaped mound of shattered rock surrounding a trough. The accepted theory is that stones were heated in a fire and then dropped into a water-filled trough to bring it to the boil, most likely for cooking meat. What catches the attention at Knockbarry is not one such site but two, sitting in close proximity on either side of a field fence, suggesting repeated or sustained activity in this particular corner of north Cork.

The site lies immediately to the east of a well, now drained, which may point to why this spot was chosen in the first place. Fulachtaí fia are almost always found close to a reliable water source, whether a stream, a spring, or a well, and the pairing of the monument with a now-lost well here is consistent with that pattern. The spread of burnt material at Knockbarry remains grass-covered and unexcavated, which means the details of its construction and precise date are unknown, though fulachtaí fia are generally associated with the Bronze Age, broadly the period from around 2500 to 500 BC. The second site to the north, recorded separately, reinforces the sense that this area saw repeated use across time or by different groups operating in the same landscape.