The clearing is unplanted, and it corresponds to the likely location of a fulacht fia, one of the horseshoe-shaped mounds of fire-cracked stone found in their thousands across the Irish landscape, generally interpreted as prehistoric cooking sites where water was boiled by dropping heated stones into a trough. What makes this particular example quietly interesting is less what it is than how it came to light: the site was identified not through a dedicated archaeological survey but through harvest maps submitted as part of a routine felling licence application to the Forest Service.

The historic Ordnance Survey maps, across all their editions, show the southern portion of the current plantation as rough pasture running along the banks of a watercourse, with drier ground on all sides. That combination, low-lying damp ground beside a stream, is precisely the kind of setting fulachta fia tend to occupy, and it appears the land resisted the kind of intensive use that might otherwise have levelled or obscured the monument. The circular clearing visible today suggests the mound or its surrounding hollow has persisted through the plantation's establishment, leaving a legible signature in the canopy overhead. The identification was made by Seamus O'Murchu, an archaeologist with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, working from the forestry documentation in early 2022.