During fieldwalking along the planned route of the N52 Nenagh Bypass link road in 1999, archaeologists Hughes and O'Brien identified a substantial spread of burnt stone sitting atop a low mound near Tullahedy in County Tipperary. The spread measures roughly 29 metres by 36 metres, making it a considerable example of its type, and it does not stand alone: a second burnt spread lies approximately 30 metres to the north-west, suggesting this stretch of ground saw repeated or sustained prehistoric activity.

The site is a fulacht fia, a class of monument found in great numbers across Ireland and typically interpreted as an ancient cooking or food-processing site, though some researchers have proposed other uses including textile preparation or bathing. The defining feature is the mound itself, built up over time from cracked and fire-shattered stones that were heated and then plunged into water-filled troughs to bring them to the boil. The stones fracture with repeated heating and cooling, and are discarded in quantity, which is why fulachtaí fia tend to survive as low, horseshoe-shaped spreads of reddened and broken rock. Most date to the Bronze Age, roughly 2000 to 500 BC, though examples from other periods are known. The pair at Tullahedy, sitting in close proximity on what appears to be a deliberately raised piece of ground, hints at a location that held some practical or communal significance over an extended period.