Just beneath the surface lay a small burnt mound, a modest spread of charcoal-rich soil, fire-cracked stone, and silt measuring roughly four metres by two metres and only fifteen centimetres deep. Unimpressive by any visual standard, it nonetheless raised a question that archaeologists have not been able to answer with certainty: was it part of an adjacent metalworking operation, or was it something else entirely?

The site was excavated under licence in 1999, with findings published by Stevens in 2000. The mound sits eight metres north of a separate metalworking site, and the proximity of the two features is suggestive, though not conclusive. The fire-cracked stone, ninety per cent sandstone and ten per cent limestone, is consistent with repeated heating and sudden cooling, a process typical of fulacht fia activity. A fulacht fia, the term used for a class of prehistoric burnt mound found widely across Ireland, is generally associated with outdoor cooking or possibly bathing, though their precise function remains debated. What makes Parksgrove slightly unusual is the ambiguity: the mound may represent industrial activity tied to metalworking, or it may be a fulacht fia that simply ended up in close company with later, or earlier, metalworking. A second confirmed fulacht fia lies around 190 metres to the south, which hints at a landscape that was used repeatedly over time, even if the connections between individual features remain unclear.