At Mondaniel in County Cork, excavation ahead of the bypass uncovered three shallow circular pits, each showing clear signs of intense burning and filled with layers of charcoal. The pits were small, ranging from roughly a metre to just under one and a half metres in diameter, and none was particularly deep. Their modest dimensions, combined with the physical evidence of burning, pointed investigators towards a specific and largely forgotten rural industry: the production of charcoal.

Charcoal-making pits of this kind were used to slowly combust wood in a low-oxygen environment, a process that drove off moisture and volatile compounds and left behind a fuel far more efficient than raw timber, particularly useful for metalworking and other heat-intensive crafts. Radiocarbon dating of the charcoal recovered from the Mondaniel pits returned a date range of AD 1420 to 1640, placing the site somewhere in the late medieval to early modern period, a time when demand for charcoal in Ireland was closely tied to ironworking activity, including the early ironworks that drew heavily on Cork's woodlands. What makes the find at Mondaniel quietly significant is that a second charcoal-making site of probable similar date lies approximately 350 metres to the south-southwest. The proximity of the two sites raises questions about the scale and organisation of production in this part of north Cork, suggesting something more deliberate than a one-off operation.