It measures roughly nine metres east to west and just under a metre high, and its curved arms open southward across the ground. This is a fulacht fia, a type of prehistoric cooking or processing site found in considerable numbers across Ireland, typically dating to the Bronze Age. The basic principle was simple: stones were heated in a fire, dropped into a water-filled trough to bring it to the boil, and used to cook meat or, as some researchers now argue, to brew ale or process hides. The mounds that survive today are the discarded material from that process, a crescent of heat-shattered stones and charcoal-darkened soil built up over repeated use.

This particular example preserves its form well. The horseshoe shape, with an opening three metres wide facing south, is characteristic of the type. Its position beside a stream was not incidental; a reliable water source was essential to the whole operation, and boggy, low-lying ground of exactly this kind recurs again and again at fulacht fia sites across the country. The trackway beside it hints at some degree of passing traffic or organised activity in what might otherwise seem a remote spot, though the nature of that connection is long since lost.