It measures around 24 metres north to south and 25 metres east to west, rising only about half a metre above the surrounding ground. That modest profile is easy to overlook, but the dark, crumbly material it is made of tells a more interesting story. This is a fulacht fia, a type of prehistoric cooking site found in large numbers across Ireland, typically consisting of a mound of fire-cracked stone accumulated beside a trough or pit where water was heated by dropping in stones from a fire. They date broadly to the Bronze Age, though the precise function of individual examples is still debated by archaeologists.

The site was recorded by Bowman in 1934, placing it in the documentary record at a time when systematic attention to such monuments was still relatively new in Ireland. What makes the Cloonteens example particularly worth noting is that it does not stand alone. A second fulacht fia lies approximately 100 metres to the southwest, suggesting that this small area of north Cork saw repeated or sustained activity of a similar kind. Whether the two sites were contemporary or separated by generations, their proximity points to a landscape that was used with some regularity, rather than a single, incidental episode of prehistoric occupation.