This is a fulacht fia, a type of ancient cooking site typically dating to the Bronze Age, formed from the accumulated debris of thousands of heating episodes. The method involved heating stones in a fire, dropping them into a water-filled trough to bring it to the boil, and repeating the process until whatever was being cooked, most likely meat, was done. The discarded, fire-cracked stones built up over time into the distinctive mound that survives today.

The mound at Curraleagh is penannular, meaning it forms an almost complete ring with a gap, and that opening, about 1.7 metres wide, faces north. The mound itself measures roughly 18 metres east to west and just over 18.9 metres north to south, rising to about 1.1 metres at its highest point. Those are substantial dimensions, suggesting the site saw sustained or repeated use. It lies around 80 metres west of a well, a proximity that is entirely typical; water supply was fundamental to the whole process. What makes the location particularly interesting is that a second fulacht fia stands only about 24 metres to the west, raising the possibility that this small patch of north Cork was a repeatedly chosen or purposefully returned-to location, though whether the two sites were in use at the same time remains an open question.