Fulachtaí fia are burnt mound sites, typically comprising a spread of fire-cracked stones and charcoal-rich soil accumulated around a trough, thought to have been used for cooking, bathing, or possibly textile processing during the Bronze Age. They survive in their thousands across the Irish landscape, often as low, horseshoe-shaped mounds in damp ground, though this particular example left a more ambiguous trace.

The site came to light in 2003 when archaeologist Flor Hurley was carrying out monitoring work ahead of a housing development called Glantan, under licence 03E1382. In Area 8 of the monitoring zone, on a gentle south-south-west-facing slope, Hurley identified what appeared to be a fulacht fia. Excavation followed later that same year, led by Niamh O'Callaghan under licence 03E1717. The remains measured roughly six metres by five metres and reached a depth of around 0.3 metres, consisting of a layer of black silt mixed with heat-shattered stones, the characteristic debris of repeated high-temperature activity. Crucially, no features were recorded beneath this deposit, which led the excavators to suggest the material may have been ex situ, meaning it had potentially been moved from its original location rather than sitting undisturbed above whatever activity produced it. That uncertainty gives the site a particular archaeological interest: it is not a straightforward example of the type, but a fragment of evidence that raises more questions than it answers.

The site sits within what is now the wider Castletroy area on the eastern edge of Limerick city, a landscape that has seen considerable suburban expansion. Given that it was identified during pre-development monitoring and subsequently excavated, the physical remains are unlikely to be visible to a visitor today. The value here is less in what can be seen on the ground than in what the record tells us: that even in areas absorbed into modern development, the soil can hold traces of prehistoric use that left no mark on any map and might easily have been lost without systematic archaeological oversight.