A fulacht fia, the term used for these ancient burnt mounds, typically consists of a horseshoe-shaped heap of fire-cracked stone beside a water-filled trough. The process was straightforward: stones were heated in a fire and dropped into the trough to bring the water to a boil, allowing meat to be cooked without direct flame. The site at Rathbane South offers a compact but unusually legible version of this arrangement, with the key components preserved in close relationship to one another.

The site came to light during archaeological monitoring carried out in connection with the N20/N21 Limerick Bypass, and was excavated under licence number 99E0633 by Catherine McLoughlin in 1999. What she uncovered was a roughly circular spread of black soil and heat-shattered stone measuring 7.5 metres east-west by 8.5 metres, and around 0.2 metres deep. Beneath this burnt spread lay the working parts of the site: an oval trough cut into the subsoil, measuring 2.6 metres by 1.9 metres and up to 0.4 metres deep, filled with burnt mound debris; and a fire-pit 0.5 metres to its east, measuring 1.7 metres by 1.2 metres, with a charcoal-rich layer at its base mixed with burnt stone. Between the trough and the fire-pit, twelve stake-holes were identified, interpreted as the remains of a windbreak, a small but practical detail that gives the site an unexpected sense of domestic logic. Several further pits were found nearby, though none yielded artefacts, and no dating evidence was recovered from any of the fills. The burnt spread itself was later cut by a linear east-west gully and a series of lazy-beds, the raised cultivation ridges associated with post-medieval farming, placing at least two further phases of land use on top of the prehistoric activity. A second fulacht fia is recorded approximately 70 metres to the north.

Because the site was identified through development-led monitoring rather than as a visible surface feature, there is nothing to see at ground level today. Its interest lies in the excavation record rather than any accessible remains. The published summary appears in the 2000 volume of the excavations journal, and researchers or those with a particular interest in Bronze Age land use in the Limerick area will find the site report the most productive starting point. The surrounding townland of Rathbane South sits in the broader Limerick suburban fringe, where road schemes have, over the years, produced a quiet accumulation of such discoveries just beneath the surface of otherwise unremarkable ground.