The one at Scarteen in County Kerry sits in rough hill grazing within an ancient field system, a low crescent-shaped mound, barely knee-height at 0.8 metres, covered in rushes and composed of burnt and fire-cracked stone. That crescent shape is characteristic of the type: a horseshoe of discarded material thrown up around a central trough, the open end here measuring roughly three metres across and oriented towards a stream to the south-east. The proximity to running water is no coincidence; it is a defining feature of almost every fulacht fia ever recorded.

Fulachtaí fia are generally dated to the Bronze Age, roughly 1500 to 500 BC, though some are older. The leading interpretation, developed through experimental archaeology in the twentieth century, is that they functioned as outdoor cooking sites. Stones would be heated in a fire and dropped into a water-filled trough, bringing the water to a boil quickly enough to cook large joints of meat. The crescent mound itself is essentially a rubbish heap, the accumulated debris of shattered stone that could not survive repeated heating and cooling. Other theories have proposed uses ranging from textile processing to bathing, and the debate has not fully settled. At Scarteen, the mound measures nine metres on its longer axis and six and a half metres on its shorter, modest but well-preserved. What gives this particular spot an added quiet interest is that a second fulacht fia lies only about thirty-four metres to the north-north-east, suggesting that this stretch of hillside, beside its stream, was a place people returned to over time.