It measures roughly four metres across, which is not large, but what it represents is quietly remarkable. This is a burnt mound, a type of prehistoric cooking or processing site found scattered across Ireland in the thousands, typically dating to the Bronze Age. The basic principle involves heating stones in a fire, dropping them into a water-filled trough to bring the water to a boil, and then discarding the cracked, heat-shattered stones in a pile nearby. Over time, those piles accumulate into the low, dark, kidney-shaped spreads that archaeologists recognise as one of the most common monument types on the island.

This particular example at Corballis came to light not through chance but through the practical demands of modern planning. When the Donabate Local Area Plan was being developed, the site was flagged for investigation, and two separate assessments followed. A geophysical survey was carried out under licence number 05R012, followed by a test excavation under licence number 06E0027. The excavation confirmed the presence of burnt mound material spread across that four-metre diameter, and the findings were written up by Christine Baker in 2006. The barony of Nethercross, in which Corballis sits, takes its name from a medieval administrative division of land, and this stretch of north County Dublin has long been an area of quiet archaeological interest, sitting as it does on relatively low-lying ground close to the coast and the Broadmeadow estuary.

The site is not marked or presented as a visitor destination, and there is no formal access point dedicated to it. Corballis is a townland on the Donabate peninsula, and the area is generally accessible by road from the village of Donabate, which is served by the Dublin to Belfast rail line. Anyone with an interest in the site would do well to consult the National Monuments Service online map before visiting, as the precise location is recorded there. The mound itself, being a low spread of dark stony material, would not be immediately obvious to someone without prior knowledge of what to look for, and it sits within a landscape that is increasingly subject to residential and infrastructural development.