It is roughly oval in plan, measuring about 9.2 metres on its longer axis and just half a metre in height. What makes it worth a second look is what it almost certainly represents: a fulacht fia, a type of prehistoric cooking site found in considerable numbers across Ireland. The typical fulacht fia consists of a horseshoe-shaped mound of burnt and shattered stone, the debris left over from repeated cycles of heating stones in a fire and dropping them into a water-filled trough to bring it to the boil. They date mostly to the Bronze Age, and their sheer abundance across the Irish countryside suggests they were a routine feature of daily or seasonal life rather than anything ceremonial.

What adds a small layer of interest here is that this mound is not alone. Another similar mound lies roughly 45 metres to the north-northwest, suggesting that this particular spot in Ballynamanagh was returned to more than once, or that two separate episodes of activity left their marks in close proximity. Whether that points to a favoured location near a reliable water source, as fulachtaí fia typically required, is not recorded, but the pairing is a detail worth noting in a type of site that is often encountered in isolation.