Beneath the turf lies a spread of burnt and fire-cracked stone, the characteristic signature of a fulacht fia, and the fact that a second example of the same type sits roughly 110 metres to the south-east makes this corner of Cork unusually concentrated in prehistoric activity.

A fulacht fia is a type of ancient cooking or processing site found in large numbers across Ireland, typically dating to the Bronze Age, though some may be earlier or later. The basic mechanism involved heating stones in a fire, then dropping them into a water-filled trough to bring the water to boiling point. Over successive uses, the stones shatter from thermal shock and are raked aside, gradually building up the crescent-shaped or kidney-shaped mounds that survive in fields and boggy ground today. Ireland has thousands of them, making them one of the most common field monuments in the country, yet individual sites tend to attract little attention. The Ballyellis example is unexcavated and unexceptional in isolation, but the proximity of a second site so nearby raises quiet questions about how this particular patch of ground was used, and by whom, and for how long.