During archaeological testing and monitoring carried out in 2001, excavators uncovered a pair of burnt pits at Ballyvergan, along with an associated spread of rake-out material. The larger of the two pits measured roughly 1.3 metres north to south, a metre east to west, and just under a third of a metre deep. Subcircular in plan, its primary fill was a charcoal-rich lens of compacted material, and both pits showed clear signs of oxidisation, the reddening and structural change in surrounding soil that indicates sustained exposure to heat. The scatter of rake-out material nearby, around 0.6 metres by 0.4 metres, had oxidised in the same way.

Burnt pits of this kind are relatively common in the Irish archaeological record, though their precise function is often debated. Many are associated with fulachta fiadh, a term used for ancient cooking or processing sites typically identified by a mound of heat-shattered stone beside a trough or pit, where water was heated using fire-cracked rocks. The Ballyvergan pits fit broadly within that tradition of organised, repeated burning in confined cut features, though the excavation record here is modest and specific conclusions remain cautious. The work was carried out under the direction of Noonan, whose findings were reported in 2001 and again in a 2003 publication, giving the site a documented context even if it remains one of the quieter footnotes of Cork's prehistoric landscape.