THE wrappers from digestive biscuits littered the remains of the lean to hut torn apart by Garda technical experts.
The biscuits had been put, usually two at a time, into a shoulder held mortar, according to gardai, to absorb the recoil from the explosive.
The hut made from wood and galvanised steel nailed to trees had been insulated with fibreglass and equipped with electricity, gas heating and straw beds - the basics for a night in isolated woodland.
All that was missing was a generator. Gardai believe this was kept locally.
Bedding, grubby blankets and a sleeping bag with a green anorak on top was left to one side.
According to Chief Supt Colm Rooney, the structure had been camouflaged and could have been easily missed by anyone wandering into the woods.
Not many people do. The 7,000 acre bog and woodland owned by the state forestry agency, Coillte, is down almost two miles of rough roadway.
The hut and its mortar firing range lay at least another quarter mile across boggy terrain. The camp lay just a mile from the Fermanagh border.
Another quarter mile away the 30 metre rifle firing range was littered with AK47 shells. A pile of the muddied brass shells lay at the entrance to the tunnel which was dug into the woodland, lined with wooden pallets and covered with black polythene.
More than 100 tyres were packed together forming a long, narrow shooting tunnel. It was positioned to allow target shooting while kneeling on one knee.
A concrete tube underneath formed the second position for shooting practice while lying down.
According to gardai the tyres and tunnel would have silenced the noise of the hundreds of rounds fired. The ammunition hit a soft bank at the other end.
The tunnel was wanted to allow the fumes from the firing to escape.
The firing range had also been camouflaged. Gardai are awaiting technical reports to determine when it was last used. It is likely that the target practice was carried out in daylight.
The materials to build the camp would have had to have been carried across rough bogland, which is pitted with gullies and streams and thick pine trees.
