When contractors began preparatory work in 2004 ahead of the N8 Mitchelstown relief road in County Cork, the ground at Stag Park gave up something quietly remarkable: a pit that had been burned where it stood, in situ, meaning the burning happened in the pit itself rather than material being deposited there afterwards. That distinction matters, because it points to deliberate, repeated activity at a fixed location rather than simple disposal.

The burnt pit was not an isolated feature. It formed part of a complex of almost one hundred pits, post-holes, and stake-holes, the kind of spread that suggests a settlement or working area of some duration. Post-holes and stake-holes are the ghostly impressions left by upright timbers, the structural bones of buildings or enclosures that have long since rotted away. To the south of the main complex, two sherds of prehistoric pottery turned up in an extremely shallow feature, fragile traces that survived only because the ground around them had not been significantly disturbed. Pottery sherds of this kind are often the most direct evidence archaeologists have for dating activity at a site, though the record here stops short of assigning a more precise period than "prehistoric".