It measures eight metres by six, rises only about thirty centimetres from the surrounding ground, and consists almost entirely of burnt material. That modest profile is the characteristic signature of a fulacht fia, a type of site found in great numbers across Ireland and generally associated with Bronze Age activity, most likely involving the repeated heating of stones and their use to boil water in a trough or pit. The stones crack and shatter with each heating and cooling cycle, and it is the gradual accumulation of this fire-shattered debris, blackened and sometimes mixed with charcoal, that builds up into the horseshoe-shaped or irregular mounds still visible in fields today.

What makes the Corbally example quietly interesting is its company. Within roughly one hundred and fifty metres to the north-north-west there is a separate burnt spread, and another fulacht fia lies approximately one hundred and fifty metres to the north. Finding two or three such sites clustered within a short distance of one another is not unheard of, but it does suggest that this particular stretch of valley, with its accessible stream, was returned to repeatedly, possibly over generations. The proximity to running water is typical; the stream would have been essential both for filling a cooking trough and, perhaps, for cooling and cleaning the working area between uses. Whether these three features represent broadly contemporary activity or accumulated use across a longer span of time is the kind of question that only excavation and radiocarbon dating could resolve.