That is precisely what happened here, when improvement works on the N11 brought archaeologists to the area and revealed what remained of a burnt mound.

Burnt mounds are among the more enigmatic features of the Irish Bronze Age landscape. They typically consist of a heap of fire-cracked stone and charcoal-rich earth, accumulated beside a water source over repeated episodes of heating. The prevailing interpretation is that stones were heated in a fire and then plunged into a trough of water to bring it rapidly to the boil, for cooking, bathing, or industrial processes, though the precise purpose is still debated by archaeologists. The site at Ballinaclogh was excavated by Goorik Dehaene as part of the N11 road improvement scheme. The remains measured roughly 20 metres by 20 metres, though by the time they were uncovered the deposit had been heavily disturbed and truncated, meaning much of the original spread had already been lost to later activity or ground disturbance. What remained was enough to identify and record the site, but the full picture of how it was used and over what period cannot be reconstructed from what survived.