The monument sits on the eastern side near the mouth of a narrow river valley running between two hills, and its popular name, the Druid's Altar, belongs to that familiar tradition of attaching ancient or mystical associations to megalithic structures that defied easy explanation for later generations. Portal tombs, sometimes called dolmens, are among Ireland's earliest surviving built structures, typically consisting of two upright portal stones, a chamber, and a large capstone raised overhead, the whole originally covered by a mound of earth or stone. What makes this particular example quietly affecting is precisely its current state of collapse, which is itself historically documented.

According to a local account written around 1850 by a writer named Fogarty, the monument was still largely intact until sometime around 1825 to 1830, at which point the roofstone, which he describes as having rested level on seven large flags, was dislodged. The structure as it stands now bears out that account in its details: the western portal stone is broken, the eastern portal stone has fallen flat, the adjoining eastern sidestone has shifted out of position, and the great capstone has slid westward so that one end now leans against the backstone and the remaining western sidestone. A large slab lying to the south of the chamber may be the broken upper section of the western portal. The chamber, what remains of it, faces roughly south-southeast. Scholars including Borlase, Powell, and Ó Nualláin have each recorded the tomb, placing it within the broader distribution of portal tombs across the region of Iverk, the old barony in which Owning sits.