The spread measured roughly 25.8 metres east to west and just over nine metres north to south, placing it among the larger examples of its kind. A burnt mound of this sort, sometimes called a fulacht fia in Irish archaeological terminology, is understood to represent a site where water was repeatedly heated by dropping fire-heated stones into a trough or pit. The stones, thermally shocked by the repeated heating and cooling, shatter and accumulate over time into exactly the kind of dark, crumbly spread that lay here.

The site came to light in 2000 during topsoil stripping ahead of construction work for the Ballincollig-Ballineen gas pipeline, which brought it into view but also caused it considerable damage before excavation could begin. When archaeologists investigated what remained, they found the characteristic charcoal-enriched soil and heat-shattered stone, but no associated features such as a trough or hearth cut into the ground, aside from a relatively recent north-south field drain that had sliced across the spread. One object did survive: a fragment of a lignite bracelet, found in the north-eastern portion of the site. Lignite, a soft brownish coal that can be worked and polished, was occasionally used in prehistoric Ireland to make jewellery, and its presence here offers a rare personal detail within what is otherwise an assemblage defined by heat, water, and repetition. Spring wells were recorded both to the north and south of the spread, which fits the broader pattern of such sites being deliberately placed near reliable water sources. A closely related site, a possible second fulacht fia, lies just 0.35 metres to the east, suggesting this corner of Cork may have seen sustained activity over a long period.