These low, horseshoe-shaped mounds, typically found near water, are the accumulated debris of an ancient cooking method: stones were heated in fire and dropped into a water-filled trough until the water boiled, the cracked and spent stones then raked aside into a heap that slowly built up over repeated use. The example recorded at An Choill Mhór in County Kerry is one of many such sites in the region, sitting quietly in a landscape that has been shaped by human activity for millennia.

The term fulacht fia translates loosely from Irish as something like "cooking place of the deer," though the name is a medieval one applied retrospectively to monuments that are mostly Bronze Age in date, generally spanning from around 1500 to 500 BC. The distinctive mounds they leave behind are usually composed of fire-shattered stone and charcoal-rich soil, and when excavated they frequently reveal wooden or stone-lined troughs. Ireland has an unusually dense concentration of these sites, and Kerry is no exception. An Choill Mhór, meaning "the big wood," suggests a townland that was once more heavily forested than it may appear today, a common pattern across lowland and valley areas where the original tree cover has long since been cleared for agriculture.

Because detailed site-specific information for this particular monument is limited, it is difficult to say precisely what condition the mound is in or how accessible it may be to a visitor. Fulachtaí fia are often inconspicuous in the field, easily mistaken for a natural rise in the ground, and many survive only partially. Those with an interest in Bronze Age Kerry would find the wider area worth exploring, as such sites rarely occur in complete isolation.