The ground around the base is denuded and churned, the stone itself tilting gently to the east-north-east, leaning into the landscape as if it has been settling for a very long time.

Standing stones are among the most enigmatic monuments in the Irish countryside. Erected at various points from the Neolithic through the early medieval period, they resist easy interpretation: some marked boundaries or routeways, some may have had ritual functions, and many have simply outlasted whatever purpose first drove someone to haul a block of stone upright. This particular example is square in plan, roughly 30 centimetres across, with a rounded top, and was set into the ridge with packing stones placed against it to the north and south, a practical measure to keep the upright stable in the ground. The ridge itself runs approximately north to south, and the stone sits along that natural spine of higher ground. Local knowledge holds that it has stood here for as long as anyone can remember, which in itself is a kind of continuity, a stone so unremarkable in its presence that it simply became part of the place.