The one at Glanbannoo, in County Cork, is a quiet example of a type that has puzzled researchers for generations. A fulacht fia typically survives as a low, horseshoe-shaped mound of fire-cracked stone, usually found close to a stream or marshy ground. The leading theory holds that these were Bronze Age cooking sites, where stones were heated in a fire and then dropped into a water-filled trough to bring it to the boil. Experiments have shown the method works efficiently, though some archaeologists have proposed alternative uses, from textile dyeing to bathing.

The Bronze Age date assigned to most fulachtaí fia places them roughly between 2000 and 500 BC, a long period during which these features appear to have been used and reused across the landscape. Cork is particularly rich in them; the county's wet, low-lying ground near rivers and bog edges provided exactly the kind of waterlogged setting these sites seem to require. The mounds themselves formed gradually as spent, shattered stone was cleared away from the trough and piled to the sides, building up over repeated use into the distinctive curved shape that survives today. At Glanbannoo, the monument represents that same long tradition of prehistoric activity, sitting within a rural Cork landscape that still holds considerable archaeological depth beneath its surface.