A fulacht fia is a Bronze Age cooking monument, typically consisting of a horseshoe-shaped mound of burnt and shattered stone surrounding a timber-lined trough. The trough would be filled with water, heated stones dropped in to bring it to the boil, and meat cooked within. Thousands survive across Ireland, but finding four in such close proximity is a less ordinary thing.

The principal mound at Gortaclare is oval in plan, measuring roughly 12 metres east to west and just under 8 metres north to south, and rising to about a metre in height. A slight indentation at the eastern end of its northern side most likely marks where the trough once sat. The mound's steep sides, modest as they are, give it a distinct profile against the flat pastureland, and livestock grazing on the site have disturbed the northern face enough to expose the characteristic burnt stone composition beneath the turf. A second fulacht fia lies just 5 metres to the north, on the far side of the small eastward-flowing stream that borders the site. Two more sit to the east and south, at 5 metres and 15 metres respectively, forming a tight cluster of four monuments sharing the same low-lying ground and the same water source.