It is not much to look at, which is precisely what makes it easy to overlook, and easy to underestimate. This is a fulacht fia, a type of prehistoric cooking site found in extraordinary numbers across Ireland, typically identified by the distinctive horseshoe-shaped mound of burnt and shattered stone left behind after repeated use. The one at Ballincurrig has been partially levelled over time, worn down by centuries of agricultural activity, yet enough of it survives to be recognised for what it is.

The basic working principle of a fulacht fia involves heating stones in a fire and then dropping them into a trough of water to bring it to a boil, a method that leaves behind exactly the kind of debris visible here: split, heat-fractured stone, often mixed with charcoal and dark organic material. What makes the Ballincurrig site particularly notable is that it does not stand alone. A second example of the same type lies roughly 80 metres to the south-south-west, and a third sits around 120 metres in the same direction. The clustering of three fulachtaí fiadh within such a short distance of one another, all positioned near a stream that would have supplied the necessary water, suggests this stretch of ground saw sustained prehistoric activity rather than a single episode of use. Whether these sites were in use simultaneously or represent different phases of activity across generations is the kind of question the surface evidence alone cannot answer.