Discovered in 2007 during archaeological monitoring ahead of an industrial development at Ballyadam, the site revealed a mound roughly twenty metres east to west and fifteen metres north to south, rising only about forty centimetres above the surrounding ground. Its bulk consisted of heat-shattered sandstone and charcoal-enriched soil, the classic signature of a fulacht fia, a type of monument found in great numbers across Ireland and typically interpreted as an outdoor cooking place. The principle was straightforward: stones were heated in a fire, then dropped into a water-filled trough to bring the water to a boil. Repeated heating and rapid cooling left the stones cracked and useless, and so they were discarded into a spreading mound beside the trough.

What makes the Ballyadam site particularly interesting is the detail that excavation pulled from it. The sandstone used to heat the water had been carried from some distance away, suggesting the location itself was chosen deliberately rather than simply for convenience of materials. Beneath the southern edge of the mound lay charcoal-rich peaty clay that extended into a natural pond, roughly ten metres by eight metres and nearly a metre deep, almost certainly the water source the site depended on. That pond had over time been filled in with layers of peat and more shattered stone. Twelve pits were recorded across the site, including two large ones interpreted as the actual cooking troughs, arranged in clusters to the north of the pond with further pits to the east and west. Archaeologists noted that each cluster of pit activity may represent a distinct phase or episode of use, meaning the site was returned to and worked repeatedly rather than abandoned after a single occasion. Radiocarbon dating placed the monument's use between approximately 2283 and 2146 BC, firmly in the Early Bronze Age. A second fulacht fia lies roughly 220 metres to the south-south-east, which raises the possibility that this stretch of low-lying Cork ground was a place people came back to over generations.