The site measures roughly eight metres north to south and four metres east to west, a modest footprint for something that may have been in regular use for centuries during the Bronze Age.

A fulacht fia is essentially an ancient outdoor cooking or heating site. The typical arrangement involved a trough, usually timber-lined or stone-lined, filled with water, into which stones heated in a nearby fire were dropped to bring the water to a boil. The spent, heat-fractured stones were then piled to the side, forming the characteristic horseshoe-shaped mound of blackened, crumbly material that archaeologists recognise today. The Kilcrea example sits to the east of a stream, which is entirely typical; proximity to a reliable water source was a practical necessity, and the clustering of fulachta fiadh along watercourses is one of the more consistent patterns in Irish prehistoric archaeology. What was actually being cooked, or whether cooking was even the primary purpose, remains a matter of ongoing debate. Proposals range from food preparation to hide-working, bathing, and textile processing, and it is likely that the category covers a wide range of activities across a very long span of time.