The mound, spreading approximately 29 metres north to south and 30 metres east to west, is composed of burnt material, the accumulated debris of repeated use over what may have been centuries. There is nothing dramatic to look at from a distance. That unassuming swell in an otherwise ordinary Cork field is what survives of a fulacht fia.

A fulacht fia is a type of Bronze Age cooking place found across Ireland in enormous numbers, often sited near a water source. The typical arrangement involved a trough, usually timber-lined or stone-lined, that was filled with water drawn from a nearby stream or spring. Stones were heated in a fire and dropped into the trough until the water boiled, at which point meat could be cooked. The mounds that now mark these sites are made up of the shattered, heat-cracked stones discarded after each use, dark with burning and mixed with charcoal. The proximity of this example to the Glainatouig stream fits the pattern precisely, since a reliable water supply was essential to the whole process. The site at Ballynametagh is one of thousands recorded across the country, but the sheer scale of the spread here, nearly thirty metres in each direction, suggests sustained and repeated activity at this particular spot.