Measuring roughly four metres east to west and just over two metres north to south, it is easy to walk past without registering what it represents, which is part of what makes it worth pausing over.

This is a fulacht fia, a term for a type of prehistoric cooking or processing site found in great numbers across Ireland, particularly in wet or low-lying ground. The typical form involves a trough, often timber-lined, filled with water and heated by dropping fire-cracked stones into it; those stones, once spent, were discarded into a characteristic mound nearby. Over time these discarded stones accumulate into the dark, charcoal-flecked spreads that survive in the landscape today. The kidney or horseshoe shape seen here is classic for the type, produced by the way material was thrown aside from a central working area. Thousands of fulachta fia have been recorded across Ireland, making them among the most common prehistoric monuments in the country, yet their precise function remains a matter of debate among archaeologists, with theories ranging from cooking meat to brewing, dyeing cloth, or bathing.