The site at Clashadunna would have remained entirely unknown had a road project not disturbed the ground, and what it revealed, however fragmentary, is a quiet reminder of how much archaeology waits just below the surface of ordinary landscapes.

A fulacht fia is a type of prehistoric cooking or processing site found in great numbers across Ireland, typically consisting of a trough dug into the ground near a water source, surrounded by the burnt and shattered stones used to heat the water. The example at Clashadunna came to light in 2001 during monitoring of topsoil removal ahead of the construction of the N25 Youghal Bypass. The damaged remains were excavated across an area measuring thirteen metres east to west and eight metres north to south. At the centre of the site lay an oval trough, roughly 2.3 metres by 1.9 metres and around half a metre deep, sealed beneath a spread of heat-shattered stones and charcoal-enriched soil. Three circular stake-holes had been cut into the base of the trough, suggesting some form of wooden lining or internal structure. A radiocarbon sample taken from the fill of the trough returned a calibrated date of between approximately 1410 and 1120 BC, placing its use firmly in the Middle to Late Bronze Age. The excavation was reported by Noonan in 2003.