What remained afterwards told the story clearly enough: a scatter of charcoal and burnt stones marked where the northernmost mound had stood, the characteristic signature of a fulacht fia.

A fulacht fia is a type of prehistoric cooking or industrial site, typically identified by a horseshoe-shaped mound of fire-cracked stones and charcoal, usually positioned close to a water source. The method involved heating stones in a fire and then dropping them into a water-filled trough to bring it to a boil, a process repeated until enough heat was generated for cooking, or possibly for other purposes such as textile working or bathing. The proximity of the three mounds to the river, sitting just five to ten metres from its eastern bank, fits this pattern precisely. J. Cuppage documented the site in the 1986 Corca Dhuibhne archaeological survey of the Dingle Peninsula, concluding that all three mounds were likely fulachta fiadh, the plural form. The site lies in a part of Kerry that has long rewarded careful archaeological attention; the Dingle Peninsula is dense with prehistoric and early medieval remains, and the clustering of three such mounds in one location suggests sustained activity at this spot over time.

The levelling of the mounds during drainage work is a story repeated across rural Ireland, where field improvement schemes throughout the twentieth century inadvertently removed or disturbed countless earthworks before their significance was fully appreciated. What survives at Baile Na Saor Íochtarach is essentially a trace, the burnt stone spread that drainage could flatten but not entirely erase.