It is, in fact, the remains of a fulacht fia, a type of prehistoric cooking site found in great numbers across Ireland. The mound, measuring around 16.7 metres in diameter, is composed of burnt and fire-cracked stone, the accumulated debris of repeated use over what may have been centuries. The typical interpretation is that water was heated in a trough by dropping stones that had been fired in a hearth, then used for cooking or possibly other purposes. The distinctive horseshoe or kidney shape of the resulting mound comes from the way spent stones were discarded to the sides.

What makes this particular spot quietly notable is not the mound itself but what sits roughly 50 metres to the north-west: a second fulacht fia. Finding two of these sites in such close proximity to one another, both beside the same watercourse, suggests this small area in Mid Cork saw repeated or sustained activity during prehistory. Fulachtaí fia are among the most common archaeological monuments in Ireland, yet they are also among the least understood. Their nearness to streams and rivers is almost universal, since a reliable water supply was essential to however they were used. Whether the two Dawstown sites were contemporary with one another or separated by generations of use is a question the mounds themselves cannot easily answer.