It measures roughly 18 metres on its longer axis and rises no more than 0.6 to 0.7 metres above the surrounding ground. A shallow hollow, partially filled with stones, sits on its northern edge. Eight metres to the south-west, a stream or drain still runs. None of this would look like much to a passing eye, which is precisely what makes it worth a second glance.

This is a burnt mound, a type of prehistoric site found widely across Ireland and Britain, typically consisting of a heap of fire-cracked stones discarded after repeated heating and quenching in water. The leading interpretation is that these mounds accumulated beside outdoor cooking troughs, where stones were heated in a fire and then dropped into water-filled pits to bring the water to a boil, a method that leaves the stones shattered and heat-stained beyond reuse. Some archaeologists have proposed additional functions, including bathing or industrial processes, though cooking remains the most widely accepted explanation. The proximity of a water source, here the stream just metres away, is characteristic of the type. What makes the Rusheens example especially notable in its immediate landscape is that a fulacht fia, the Irish term for one of these cooking-place sites and one of the most common monument types in the Irish archaeological record, lies only about 50 metres to the south-south-east. Two such features this close together suggest repeated or sustained use of this particular wet, stream-adjacent ground over a long period, or possibly by different groups at different times. The old field wall running along the mound's straight south-eastern edge complicates the picture further, hinting at later agricultural activity encroaching on or incorporating the older feature.