It rises from level pasture on a south-facing hillside, oblong in plan, subrectangular in section, tapering slightly as it climbs and leaning a few degrees to the south-east. What makes it quietly interesting is the company it keeps, or might keep. Two smaller upright stones sit to its north and north-west, and field-clearance stones have been piled around their bases at some point, which complicates matters considerably.

Standing stones of this kind are prehistoric in origin, though assigning a precise date or purpose to any individual example is rarely straightforward. They appear throughout Kerry and the wider Irish landscape, and theories about their function range from territorial markers to ritual focal points to aids in astronomical observation, none of which has been conclusively established for most individual stones. The Knockeens stone measures 1.4 metres by 0.6 metres at its base, stands 2 metres high, and is orientated on a north-east to south-west axis. The two smaller stones nearby follow similar or related orientations, one running north-east to south-west, the other east to west. The question of whether they were placed deliberately alongside the main stone, perhaps forming a loose grouping or alignment, or whether they are simply the accumulated debris of farmers clearing the surrounding fields over centuries, remains genuinely open. Field clearance, the practice of gathering surface stones to free agricultural land, has left its traces across Ireland in walls, cairns, and piles that can easily be mistaken for something older and more intentional.