This is a fulacht fia, one of the most common prehistoric monument types in Ireland, yet one that still prompts genuine debate among archaeologists about what exactly went on at these sites.

The typical fulacht fia consists of a burnt mound, usually crescent or horseshoe-shaped, surrounding a trough that would originally have been dug into the ground and lined with wood or stone. The method, as best understood, involved heating stones in a nearby fire and dropping them into a water-filled trough until the water boiled. This could have served for cooking large quantities of meat, for textile processing, or possibly for bathing. The sites cluster near water sources and date broadly to the second millennium BC, though some were in use into the Iron Age. Ireland has thousands of them, scattered across lowland fields and boggy margins, often surviving as little more than a slight rise in a pasture, easily overlooked and easily damaged by agricultural machinery. The Catstown example is one of many in the Kilkenny landscape, a county with a dense record of prehistoric activity.

Because the monument sits in a rural townland setting, access would depend on landowner permission, and there is little on the ground to orientate a casual visitor beyond the characteristic spread of heat-shattered stone.