The mound measures roughly twelve metres by ten and rises to just over a metre in height, with a sub-rectangular trough area opening to the north-east. What makes it legible as something deliberate rather than accidental is what lies beneath the surface: fire-shattered red sandstone and blackened soil, the unmistakable signature of a burnt mound.

Burnt mounds, known in Irish archaeology as fulachtaí fia, are among the most common prehistoric monument types in Ireland, yet their precise purpose remains genuinely contested. The most widely accepted theory holds that they were cooking sites, where stones were heated in a fire and then dropped into a water-filled trough to bring it to the boil. The stones, unable to withstand repeated thermal shock, cracked and split, and the broken fragments were cast aside, accumulating over time into the characteristic horseshoe or crescent shape seen here. The site at Martara sits thirty metres to the west of a small stream, consistent with the pattern seen at similar sites elsewhere, where proximity to a reliable water source was a practical necessity. The mound was documented as part of Michael Connolly's 2008 doctoral research at University College Cork, which examined prehistoric settlement across the Lee Valley near Tralee from a landscape perspective. Significantly, the site also shows up clearly on aerial photography, suggesting its form is well-preserved enough to read from above despite its modest height.