These sites consist of heat-shattered stones and dark, charcoal-rich soil, the accumulated debris of repeated episodes of fire-setting and water-heating that took place during the Bronze Age. The leading theory holds that water was brought to the boil by dropping fire-heated stones into a trough, though whether these sites served primarily as cooking places, bathing facilities, or something else entirely remains a matter of ongoing debate among archaeologists.

The Lickane mound was recorded in 1994 by Ó Loingsigh, who noted a spread of fractured stone and charcoal-enriched soil measuring roughly 19 metres north to south and 15 metres east to west, lying about 25 metres east of a stream. The proximity to a water source is entirely typical; burnt mounds almost always appear beside running water, which would have been essential to their function. When surveyors returned to the site in 2002, high grass had obscured the spread entirely and it could not be relocated. A second possible burnt mound lies just 25 metres to the south, and approximately 150 metres further south again stands a rath, a circular earthwork enclosure associated with early medieval settlement. The clustering of these features in one small area suggests the land around Lickane was in active use across several different periods.