The feature itself is modest in scale, an oval pit measuring just over a metre across and about half a metre deep, with gently sloping sides on most edges and a steeper drop on the northern side leading to a flat base. That combination of shape and the layers of ash, charcoal flecks, and sandy clay found inside it are the diagnostic signs of a corn-drying kiln, a type of small pit-kiln once common across rural Ireland, used to dry harvested grain before milling or storage, particularly in a climate where damp made natural drying unreliable.

The excavation, carried out across an area of roughly 70 by 60 metres in advance of the road construction, was reported by Hughes and O'Flanagan in 2003. The kiln's fills had been disturbed before archaeologists reached them, probably by animal burrowing or the spread of tree roots over the centuries, which makes precise dating difficult. What the excavation also revealed, though, is that this corner of the Monadreela ridge was not simply a lone agricultural feature in an otherwise empty landscape. Roughly 60 metres to the northeast, a fulacht fia was uncovered alongside associated burnt spreads. A fulacht fia is a type of prehistoric cooking or industrial site, typically identified by a mound of fire-cracked stone beside a trough or pit that was repeatedly used with heated stones to boil water. About 40 metres to the north-northwest, a ring-ditch, the circular trench marking of a burial monument, was also excavated. The cluster suggests a landscape that saw repeated human activity across different periods.