It is a fulacht fia, a term used for prehistoric cooking or processing sites found in their thousands across Ireland, typically identified by a horseshoe-shaped mound of burnt and shattered stone left over from repeated cycles of heating and water-boiling. What makes the Dromavane example particularly interesting is that it survived long enough to be properly excavated, and the excavation caught it in unusual detail.

The site came to light in 2000 during topsoil stripping for the Ballincollig-Ballineen gas pipeline, and was excavated before construction proceeded. The mound itself measured roughly 10.2 metres east to west and 6 metres north to south, sitting on a south-east-facing slope in pasture. Its outer edge was defined by a layer of ash that extended underneath the main spread, suggesting the burning activity had been sustained and repeated over time. Two troughs were identified within and at the edge of the mound. The central one, subrectangular in shape and about 2.17 by 1.73 metres, had been cut down through the burnt material into the subsoil; it retained a basal layer of charcoal and showed traces of stone lining along its southern side. A second, slightly deeper trough at the south-western edge of the spread was roughly subcircular, measuring around 2 metres by 1.5 metres and reaching a depth of nearly a metre, with an iron pan deposit at its base, the kind of mineral layer that can form where waterlogged conditions persist. A further possible burnt mound lies just 1.7 metres to the west, raising the possibility that this corner of a Cork hillside saw repeated activity across a long period.