The depression is modest, roughly 3.6 metres east to west and 1.5 metres north to south, sinking only about 40 centimetres into the earth. There is no dramatic mound to catch the eye, but look closely at ground level and you will find black earth and heat-shattered stones, which are the characteristic signatures of a site where people once heated water by dropping fire-cracked rocks into a trough.

Fulachtaí fia, found in their thousands across Ireland, are generally dated to the Bronze Age, though some examples span a wider period. The name is sometimes translated as "cooking place of the deer", and the prevailing interpretation is that they functioned as outdoor cooking sites, perhaps also serving as saunas or processing areas for hides. The method was simple but effective: stones were heated in a fire, then transferred into a water-filled trough until the water reached boiling point. The repeated heating and rapid cooling eventually caused the stones to fracture, which accounts for the distinctive burnt and shattered fragments that survive at sites like this one. The Ballingowan example sits approximately 21 metres south of a stream running along the townland boundary, a typical arrangement, since ready access to water was essential for the whole operation.