It measures roughly twelve metres east to west and ten metres north to south, rising to a maximum height of just 0.6 metres; a flat-topped, oval presence in the waterlogged ground. What looks like a forgotten heap is in fact a fulacht fia, the remains of a type of cooking or processing site found in great numbers across Ireland, typically dating to the Bronze Age. The characteristic mound is composed of fire-cracked stones, discarded after being heated and plunged into a water-filled trough to bring it to the boil, a process repeated until the stones eventually shattered and became useless.

The location fits a pattern well established across Irish archaeology. Fulachtaí fia are almost always found close to water and in low-lying, often wet ground, precisely the kind of marginal landscape that surrounds this site. What makes Ballyready quietly notable is that it does not stand alone. A second fulacht fia lies approximately 38 metres to the east, raising the possibility that this stretch of streamside ground was returned to repeatedly, or used simultaneously, by the people who once worked here. The proximity of two such sites to one another is not unheard of, but it gives this otherwise unassuming patch of Cork countryside a slightly denser archaeological character than its appearance would suggest.