The deposit measures roughly five metres north to south and four metres east to west, with further traces visible along the face of the riverbank itself, extending for about five metres. What makes it worth attention is precisely its ordinariness: this is the kind of site that slips past unnoticed until drainage works cut through the ground and expose what was lying beneath.

The material belongs to a category archaeologists call a burnt spread, the surface remnant of what may once have been a fulacht fiadh, or burnt mound. These features are among the most common prehistoric monuments in Ireland, typically formed by the repeated heating of stones in fire and their subsequent dumping beside a water source after being used, probably, to heat water in a trough or pit. Over centuries, the discarded cracked and blackened stone accumulates into a low mound or spread, often crescent-shaped, always close to water. The site at Scarteen fits that pattern well: a riverside location, peaty ground that preserves organic material, and the characteristic dark, charred deposit. The exposure here came about through drainage works rather than deliberate excavation, which means the full extent of what lies beneath the pasture remains unknown.