It measures roughly eighteen metres east to west and fourteen metres north to south, making it a substantial example of a fulacht fia, the type of prehistoric cooking site found in great numbers across Ireland. The name fulacht fia translates loosely as "cooking pit of the deer", and the sites typically consist of a mound of shattered stone accumulated beside a trough, into which heated stones were dropped to boil water. When a stone cracked from the heat it was discarded, building up the characteristic spread of dark, burnt material that survives today.

Fulachtaí fia are among the most common field monuments in Ireland, with thousands recorded across the country, the majority dating to the Bronze Age. Their distribution tends to follow low-lying or damp ground, often near streams or other water sources, and the clustering of so many examples in County Cork in particular has attracted considerable archaeological attention over the decades. The Burgatia site sits slightly apart from the typical low-lying pattern, occupying a slope with a clear outlook over the Rosscarbery inlet, which may reflect the particular topography of this stretch of the West Cork coast. The surrounding agricultural land has kept the monument in tillage, meaning the spread of material remains visible at ground level rather than obscured beneath permanent pasture or scrub.