This one, in Ballybrannagh in County Kerry, rewards a closer look. Roughly circular and measuring 13.5 metres across in both directions, it rises to a modest 0.75 metres at its highest point on the southern side. Beneath the turf, it is packed with stone, burnt soil, and blackened earth, the characteristic signature of a burnt mound, a class of prehistoric site found in considerable numbers across Ireland and Britain.

Burnt mounds are generally associated with the Bronze Age, and their precise function has been debated for decades. The most widely accepted interpretation is that they were cooking sites: stones were heated in a fire and then dropped into a water-filled trough to bring the water to a boil, a method that works efficiently but leaves behind a large quantity of cracked, fire-shattered rock and charcoal-stained soil. The accumulation of that discarded material, repeated over time, is what creates the mound. At this Ballybrannagh site, no trough was apparent when the site was examined, which is not unusual; troughs, whether timber-lined or cut into the ground, often leave little visible trace at the surface. The mound sits approximately 100 metres east of a stream feeding into the River Lee, which would have provided a ready water source, a typical locational choice for sites of this type. Its position on a slight natural rise in an otherwise wet and marshy field suggests the builders selected the one patch of stable, dry ground available to them.