But beneath that gentle swell of ground at Kilmacahill lies a spread of burnt stone and scorched material covering roughly twenty metres in each direction, the unmistakable signature of a fulacht fia. These sites, found in their thousands across Ireland, are among the most common prehistoric monuments in the country. The leading theory is that they functioned as cooking places: stones were heated in a fire, then dropped into a water-filled trough to bring it to the boil. Over repeated use, the cracked and fire-shattered stones were raked aside, and that discarded material gradually built up into the low, horseshoe-shaped mound that survives today.

What makes the Kilmacahill example quietly interesting is not the site itself in isolation, but its company. A stream runs to the south, providing the reliable water source that fulachta fia almost invariably require. And clustered around it, within a relatively small area, are at least five other recorded examples. One lies approximately 120 metres to the west, another around 80 metres to the south-south-east, and three more are recorded in the immediate vicinity. Whether this density reflects repeated use of a particularly favourable landscape over a long period, or something more organised about how prehistoric communities used this stretch of south Cork, is not something the archaeology alone can settle. The concentration is, however, striking.