A metre high and roughly twelve metres across, it sits in a D-shaped plan, a shape partly imposed not by its original builders but by modern spoil thrown up from the adjacent stream. At its centre is a clear depression, about 4.8 metres across, ringed by two concentric drystone revetments, the inner one enclosing a space three metres wide. From the mound's west-northwest edge, the faint trace of a raised causeway extends for about 2.5 metres before it disappears.

A fulacht fia, sometimes spelled fulacht fiadh, is a type of prehistoric cooking or processing site found in considerable numbers across Ireland. The typical form involves a mound of fire-cracked stone and charcoal accumulated around a trough, where water was boiled by dropping heated stones into it. They date most commonly to the Bronze Age, though examples span a wide range of periods. The site at Gortmore presents the right shape and setting for such an identification, placed close to water in boggy ground in the manner characteristic of the type. What complicates the picture here is the absence of any burnt stone or charcoal, the usual physical signatures of a fulacht fia. That absence, combined with the concentric stone revetments and proximity to Lough Corrib, raises a second possibility: that this structure was not a cooking site at all, but the remains of a lake dwelling, a platform or small crannog-like construction built at the water's edge. A crannog is an artificial or partially artificial island, often used as a defended homestead, and while the Gortmore mound sits on dry land rather than open water, the shoreline of Lough Corrib has shifted considerably over time. The two interpretations are not easily reconciled with the available evidence, and the site currently resists a firm classification.