At Coolbeg in County Wicklow, one such feature turned up during road improvement works on the N11: a rounded pit, just 0.6 metres across and a little under 0.2 metres deep, containing a single layer of burnt material spread across its floor.

The pit was excavated by archaeologist Goorik Dehaene as part of the N11 road improvement scheme, reference E3253, with findings published in 2009. The burnt-spread fill, meaning a deposit of scorched or fire-affected soil and debris within the cut, is the only detail the feature offers up. Such deposits are not unusual in Irish archaeology; burning was central to many everyday and ritual activities, from cooking to clearance to practices whose meanings are now lost entirely. A pit this size and shape could have held a post, served as a small hearth, or been used for purposes that leave no further trace. Without accompanying finds or dating material mentioned, the Coolbeg pit sits in that characteristically frustrating archaeological category: present, recorded, and largely unexplained.