But what looks at first like a nondescript heap of rubble is the divided remains of a prehistoric cooking site, split in two sometime in the relatively recent past by a track running north to south through its centre.

A fulacht fia, the term used for these Bronze Age cooking sites found across Ireland in their thousands, typically consists of a horseshoe-shaped mound of fire-cracked stone surrounding a trough. The method was straightforward: stones were heated in a fire and dropped into a water-filled pit until the water boiled, cooking meat or other food. Over time, the shattered, heat-fractured stones accumulated into the characteristic mound. The Formoyle example was first identified by Michael Mahon in 1991, and what survives today are two separate portions of what was most likely once a single horseshoe-shaped mound, open to the south, measuring roughly 11.5 metres east to west and 7.5 metres north to south, with a maximum height of about 1.4 metres. The western portion, oval in plan, is the more substantial section, while the eastern piece is a smaller, roughly circular fragment sitting about three metres away. Unusually, this site does not stand alone: the remains of two further fulachtaí fia lie approximately 45 metres to the north-northeast, suggesting that this stretch of the Caher River valley saw repeated, perhaps seasonal, use over a long period.