Neolithic houses are not abundant in the Irish archaeological record, which makes each confirmed example significant, and what emerged at Pepperhill was a coherent, if partial, picture of a domestic building that had stood and burned sometime around 4,860 years before present, a radiocarbon date obtained from material within the house trench itself.

Excavation directed by M. Gowen uncovered a narrow linear trench running roughly north to south, around 3.4 metres long and no deeper than 45 centimetres at its maximum. A short continuation turning westward at the northern end suggested this was the north-east corner of a rectangular structure, the rest of which lay beyond the excavated area of 6.5 by 4 metres. The fill told its own story: yellow clay with patches of oxidised clay beneath a darker layer rich in charcoal, indicating the walls had been clay-daubed and that the building was destroyed by fire. Four substantial post-holes to the west of the trench appeared to belong to the same structure. The finds were modest in number but pointed in meaning: twenty-two sherds and forty fragments from up to six round-bottomed shouldered bowls of Western Neolithic type, along with five struck flint blades, further flint fragments, charred hazelnut shells, and grain. The pots, with their characteristic rounded bases and shouldered profiles, are among the earliest ceramic forms used in Ireland, and the grain and hazelnut remains suggest this was a place where food was stored or processed, not merely passed through. Whatever domestic life had been conducted inside those clay walls ended in fire, and the ground quietly covered it for nearly five thousand years until a pipeline brought it back to light.