At Cragard in County Clare, one such monument survives, a low horseshoe-shaped mound of burnt and fire-cracked stone that marks the site of what archaeologists believe was a Bronze Age cooking or processing place. The typical form involves a trough, often timber-lined or cut into the ground, which would have been filled with water and heated by dropping stones from a nearby fire directly into the liquid. The cracked and spent stones were then raked out and piled to the side, building up over repeated use into the characteristic mound that still identifies these sites today.

Fulachtaí fia are found in great concentrations across Munster, and Clare is no exception. They tend to cluster near water sources, streams or boggy ground, which would have provided the supply needed for the heating process. Most date to the Bronze Age, broadly speaking between around 1500 and 500 BC, though some sites have earlier or later phases. Their exact purpose has been debated for decades. Cooking is the most widely accepted explanation, and experimental archaeology has demonstrated convincingly that a trough of water can be brought to a rolling boil using this method in a surprisingly short time. Other theories have proposed uses ranging from textile processing to bathing. The Cragard example adds to a quiet but substantial record of prehistoric activity in this part of Clare, where such monuments speak to a settled and organised use of the land long before any written account of it.