This one at Ballycoskery in north Cork sits in rough grazing land about fifty metres south of a stream, a roughly circular mound of burnt and fire-cracked material measuring just over ten metres across and still rising about forty centimetres above the surrounding ground. That modest hump in the pasture is the accumulated debris of prehistoric cooking, the discarded stone and charcoal left behind after repeated use of a technique in which rocks were heated in a fire and dropped into a water-filled trough to bring it to the boil.

What makes the site at Ballycoskery particularly interesting is that it does not stand alone. It forms part of a cluster of four fulachta fiadh in the same area, suggesting that this stretch of the north Cork landscape saw regular, possibly communal, activity over a sustained period in prehistory. Groups of these monuments occurring close together are well documented elsewhere in Ireland, though the reasons, whether seasonal gatherings, a particularly convenient water source, or simply a long tradition of return to a productive spot, remain a matter of archaeological debate. The Ballycoskery mound has not survived entirely intact. Local information recorded that it was partially levelled around 1971, which accounts for its relatively low profile today. The proximity of the stream is no accident; a reliable water supply was essential to the whole process, and fulachta fiadh are almost invariably found close to running water or marshy ground.