No scorched or shattered stone breaks through the turf, no obvious sign of what the ground contains. Only a surveyor's probe, pressed into the southern base of the mound, confirmed a mass of small stones beneath, the buried signature of a fulacht fia.

A fulacht fia is a type of prehistoric cooking site found in great numbers across Ireland, typically Bronze Age in date. The basic principle was straightforward: stones were heated in a fire and then dropped into a water-filled trough, bringing the water to a boil. The stones, fractured by repeated heating and cooling, were then discarded in a horseshoe-shaped mound around the trough. It is those cracked, fire-reddened stones that usually give the sites away at the surface. At Capnagower, that evidence is hidden, which is part of what makes the site quietly interesting. The mound itself is small but well-defined, measuring roughly six metres east to west and just under four metres north to south, with a height of about a metre on its southern side. Its plan is slightly lunate, a gentle crescent shape that opens to the north, away from the small stream running about twelve metres to the south-south-west. That proximity to water is entirely typical; a reliable water source was essential to the whole operation. A modern field wall now runs along the mound's eastern side, and a bush has taken root at its south-eastern foot, giving the site a companionable, half-domesticated look that belies its considerable age.