The feature only came to light in November 2021, when routine ground preparation work ahead of new tree planting broke the sod and exposed charcoal-rich soil and fragments of heat-shattered stone. What the machinery had found was a burnt mound, one of the most common yet least-understood monument types in the Irish archaeological record. Burnt mounds are typically prehistoric accumulations of fire-cracked stone and dark, charcoal-laden soil, thought to result from repeated episodes of heating stones and plunging them into water, possibly for cooking, bathing, or industrial processes. They tend to cluster in low-lying, damp ground, and the peaty silt noted in the northwest of this field fits that pattern exactly.

The mound measures roughly 20 metres across and rises to about half a metre at its highest point, with the most pronounced elevation visible on its south and east sides and a gentler slope falling away to the north and west. Interestingly, the feature had already been quietly visible for years before anyone recognised it as archaeology. A Digital Globe aerial photograph taken sometime between 2011 and 2013 shows a circular earthwork at the spot, though it went unidentified until the ground was disturbed. Discovery came during archaeological monitoring carried out by Dominic Delaney and Associates between the 10th and 12th of November 2021, work required under the conditions of an afforestation licence. Once the charcoal and burnt stone appeared, work in the immediate area was halted and a 20-metre exclusion zone was established around the outer edge of the mound to protect what remained.