The entire spread measures roughly 1.80 metres by 1.40 metres, and is only five centimetres deep. It is, by any conventional measure, almost nothing, and yet it is unmistakably something.

This modest deposit was examined as part of research into the prehistoric settlement of the Lee Valley near Tralee, undertaken by Michael Connolly for a doctoral thesis completed at University College Cork in 2008. The spread, contained within a slight natural depression in the basal boulder clay, the compacted glacial material that forms the underlying geology of much of this part of Kerry, consisted of charcoal, soil, and fire-cracked stones. Fire-cracked stones are a recurring feature of prehistoric sites across Ireland, typically associated with the repeated heating and cooling of rocks used in cooking or craft processes, and their presence here, even in small quantities, points to deliberate, repeated human activity rather than accidental burning. The site at Ballynahoulort sits within a wider landscape that, Connolly's research suggests, was more densely inhabited in prehistory than the present countryside might imply.