This particular example, sitting in gently sloping grassland between the Douglas and Dinin river valleys in Muckalee, only became apparent when ploughing disturbed the soil and revealed the characteristic signature of the type: black earth and small burnt stones.

Burnt mounds, sometimes called fulacht fiadh in Irish archaeological literature, are among the most common prehistoric monuments in Ireland. They typically consist of a mound of fire-cracked stones deposited beside a water source, the result of repeated cycles of heating stones in a fire and dropping them into a water trough, presumably to boil or heat the water. The Muckalee example sits close to a spring, which fits the pattern well. What makes this particular location quietly notable is that it does not stand alone. Two further burnt mounds lie nearby, one approximately 70 metres to the south-southwest and another around 300 metres to the northeast, suggesting this stretch of mid-Kilkenny ground saw repeated or sustained prehistoric activity rather than a single, isolated event. By 1987 the mound itself was described as only a very slight rise, its profile worn almost flush with the surrounding field.