In March 1986, a mound that had survived for perhaps three thousand years was levelled as part of land reclamation work, leaving behind only a spread of burnt material measuring some sixty metres long and around twenty metres wide. That scorched footprint is what remains of a fulacht fia, a type of site found in extraordinary numbers across Ireland, particularly in low-lying or waterlogged ground.

Fulachtaí fia, the plural form, are among the most common archaeological monuments on the Irish landscape. They typically consist of a horseshoe-shaped mound of fire-cracked stone and charcoal, built up around a trough, usually timber-lined or cut into the earth, where water was heated by dropping in stones that had been made red-hot in a nearby fire. The method is surprisingly efficient, and experimental archaeology has shown that a trough of water can be brought to a rolling boil within minutes. What exactly these sites were used for remains a matter of some debate: cooking is the most widely accepted explanation, but brewing, bathing, and textile processing have all been proposed. At An Droim Réidh, the scale of the burnt spread suggests sustained and repeated use over time. Notably, three other fulachtaí fia have been recorded in the immediate vicinity, which points to this particular stretch of boggy ground having been a place of regular activity rather than a one-off episode.

The site itself no longer presents any visible mound, having been flattened during reclamation. What the landscape now holds is largely invisible to the casual eye, the archaeology present only as discolouration and scattered burnt stone beneath whatever surface the land reclamation left behind.