It looks like little more than a low, vegetation-covered rise in waterlogged ground, but the material beneath the surface tells a different story: burnt stone and charred debris, the accumulated residue of prehistoric cooking activity. Two agricultural drains, running north to south, appear to have cut across it at some point, slicing through whatever original shape it once held.

The mound is a fulacht fia, a type of site found in considerable numbers across Ireland, particularly in low-lying or damp ground close to water sources. The basic method involved heating stones in a fire, dropping them into a water-filled trough to bring it rapidly to boiling point, and repeating the process as the stones cracked and split from the thermal shock. Those shattered, heat-reddened stones were then discarded to the side, forming the characteristic horseshoe-shaped or oval mounds that survive today. Most Irish examples date to the Bronze Age, broadly between 1500 and 500 BC, though some may be earlier or later. Their proximity to rivers and marshy ground was practical rather than incidental; a reliable water source was essential to the whole process. The site at Blueford fits this pattern precisely, sitting close to the Owenkeal in ground that would have provided ready access to water even without artificial means.