At Downing in north Cork, however, that unremarkable rise in the ground belongs to a cluster of four such features positioned within roughly a hundred metres of one another, which gives the site an unusual density even by the standards of a monument type that is remarkably common across the Irish landscape.

A fulacht fia, sometimes called a burnt mound, is the remains of a Bronze Age cooking or processing site. The typical method involved heating stones in a fire and dropping them into a water-filled trough until the water boiled; the cracked, spent stones were then raked aside, gradually building up the horseshoe-shaped or spread mounds we find today. The example at Downing sits on a natural rise in pasture ground and covers a spread of burnt material roughly eight metres north to south and six metres east to west. What makes the location particularly striking is the proximity of its neighbours: a second fulacht lies approximately sixty metres to the north-east, a third around fifty metres to the south-east, and a fourth only twenty metres to the east. Whether these were in use simultaneously or represent activity returning repeatedly to the same convenient patch of ground over generations, the concentration suggests this corner of north Cork was a well-frequented spot during prehistory, perhaps chosen for reliable access to water or for the natural elevation the rise provided.