It is the kind of thing that only becomes apparent when the ground is cut, and the cut here has been quite precise, a northwest-to-southeast field drain about 1.2 metres wide, which exposes the burnt layer across roughly five metres of its section face.

Burnt mounds are among the most common prehistoric monuments in Ireland, yet they remain poorly understood. The working theory, broadly accepted though debated in its details, is that they were created by repeatedly heating stones in a fire and plunging them into water-filled troughs or pits to bring the water to boiling point. Over time, the thermally fractured stone accumulated into characteristic mounds, usually found near water sources or in naturally wet ground, exactly the kind of damp pasture in which this example sits. The charcoal mixed through the deposit is a byproduct of those fires. At the southeastern end of the main drain, the burnt layer continues for about a metre along a branching drain that runs off to the north-northeast, suggesting the deposit extends further than the initial exposure shows. An old farm track, now grassed over and about four metres wide, runs along the southwestern side of the main drain. A second burnt mound of the same type lies just twenty metres to the north-northwest, which raises the question of whether the two features are related, perhaps contemporary, perhaps not, but close enough together to suggest this patch of ground saw repeated or prolonged use.