Known as fulachtaí fia, they are the remains of ancient cooking sites, typically Bronze Age in date, where stones were heated in a fire and dropped into a water-filled trough to bring it to a boil. Meat could then be cooked without any direct flame. The mounds themselves are the accumulated debris of that process, the discarded cracked stones piling up over repeated use until they formed the kidney-shaped or horseshoe-shaped earthworks that survive today.

The example at Adamswood in County Limerick came to light not through a dedicated research excavation but during the monitoring of a sewerage scheme, the Croagh Sewerage Scheme, in 2002. Archaeologist Sarah McCutcheon, working under excavation licence 02E1214, recorded several burnt spreads at the site. The fourth of these was the most complete. It measured 10.5 metres east to west and between 6.5 and 9.6 metres north to south, with a depth of just 0.21 metres, making it a relatively shallow but well-preserved deposit. At its centre was an oval trough, 1.63 metres long and 0.77 metres wide, sunk to a depth of 0.22 metres. The base of the trough had been lined with wooden planks, a detail that speaks to a degree of care in its construction. Beneath the burnt-mound material, excavation revealed several small pits, post-holes, and stake-holes, suggesting the presence of associated structures, perhaps a shelter or a frame for suspending carcasses, though their precise function is difficult to determine from the evidence alone.

The site sits in an agricultural landscape and is not formally presented for visitors. It was uncovered during infrastructural work, which means the physical remains may no longer be accessible in the way a preserved monument would be. The record is held on excavations.ie, the principal online database of Irish archaeological fieldwork reports, where McCutcheon's account provides the technical detail. For anyone interested in the broader distribution of fulachtaí fia across the Irish midlands and south, the site fits a familiar pattern, typically located near a water source, away from settlement areas, and used intermittently over a long period. The wooden plank lining of the trough at Adamswood is a relatively uncommon survival and is the detail most worth noting.