The site at Curraheen is a fulacht fia, a type of monument found in great numbers across Ireland and typically interpreted as an outdoor cooking place, though some archaeologists argue they may also have served for bathing, brewing, or textile processing. The basic method was simple: stones were heated in a fire and dropped into a water-filled trough until the contents boiled. Over repeated use, the stones shattered, and the broken fragments were raked out and piled nearby, forming the low, horseshoe-shaped mound that is the most visible sign of these sites today.

Archaeological monitoring ahead of construction of the N22 Ballincollig Bypass brought this particular mound to light. Measuring 9.4 metres long, 6 metres wide, and just under a metre deep, it was composed of the characteristic heat-shattered stones and charcoal-darkened soil. The surrounding ground had once been the edge of a natural pool or marsh, long since dried up, and two wooden posts with fire-hardened tips were found at the base of the mound at that former waterline. Their exact purpose remains uncertain, but the excavator proposed they may have acted as a revetment or small jetty, and crucially they were already in position before any mound material was deposited around them, suggesting they were part of the original working infrastructure of the site. A rectangular trough, measuring roughly 3.1 by 2 metres and just over half a metre deep, was also uncovered, along with several pits, a deposit of burnt limestone, and a number of linear features. Among the finds was a single bronze disc-headed pin recovered from the mound material. Radiocarbon dating placed the site firmly in the Late Bronze Age, between approximately 1000 and 800 BC. A second, smaller fulacht fia lay about 60 metres to the south, suggesting this was not an isolated episode of activity but part of a broader pattern of use in this marshy corner of the landscape.