It is modest to the point of near-invisibility now, measuring roughly six metres north to south, four metres east to west, and only about fifteen centimetres in height, the result of having been levelled during field clearance works. What remains is the compressed signature of repeated prehistoric fire and water: the characteristic debris of a burnt mound.

Burnt mounds are among the most common prehistoric monument types in Ireland, yet they are rarely the first thing a visitor seeks out. They are the residue of a process in which stones were heated in a fire and then dropped into a water-filled trough to raise the temperature, most likely for cooking, bathing, or industrial purposes such as working leather. The spent, cracked stones were thrown aside, accumulating over time into the low kidney-shaped or oval mounds that survive across the Irish landscape. The site at Fanahy fits this pattern closely: its position beside a stream would have made it practical to maintain a constant water supply. Its companion monument, a fulacht fia, the Irish term generally used for the trough or cooking pit associated with this kind of activity, lies approximately twenty metres to the north-west, suggesting that this small area of upland Cork saw sustained use across what was likely the Bronze Age.