When someone levelled the ground to lay foundations for an old house, they turned up burnt material in the garden, and that scorched earth pointed to something far older than any building on the site.

What they had likely disturbed was a fulacht fia, a type of prehistoric cooking site found in great numbers across Ireland, particularly in low-lying or marshy ground. The basic principle involves heating stones in a fire, then dropping them into a water-filled trough to bring the water to a boil, typically for cooking meat. The burnt and shattered stones accumulate over time into a horseshoe-shaped mound, dark with charcoal and cracked rock, which is usually what survives. Fulachtaí fia are among the most common archaeological monuments in the Irish landscape, dating mostly to the Bronze Age, though some sites span a broader period. The example at Cornaveigh left no dramatic monument visible above ground; its existence is known only through that chance discovery of burnt material, a fragment of evidence caught just before it was built over.