What emerged was a burnt mound, a type of prehistoric feature found widely across Ireland and Britain, consisting of a spread of heat-shattered stone and charcoal that accumulated around a water-heating station used for cooking or, some argue, bathing and craft processes. The mound itself is the accumulated waste of repeated use, the discarded rubble of stones cracked by the cycle of heating and quenching.

Excavation by archaeologist Yvonne Whitty uncovered two troughs sealed beneath the spread of burnt material. These troughs would have held water that was brought to temperature by dropping fire-heated stones into them, a low-technology but effective method that left a very distinctive archaeological signature. The base of one trough had been lined with split alder planks, a detail that speaks to considered construction rather than improvised use. Alder is particularly well suited to wet conditions, being resistant to decay when kept waterlogged, and its selection here was likely deliberate. A radiocarbon date obtained from the feature places activity at this spot in the early Bronze Age, broadly the period from around 2200 to 1500 BC, connecting this quiet patch of Wicklow to a way of life that was, in its own time, entirely ordinary.