It does not appear on any Ordnance Survey Ireland historic maps, and it took an archaeologist walking a very specific line across the landscape in 2002 to notice it at all. Even now, satellite imagery reveals nothing at the surface. The stone stands just 0.6 metres high, which goes some way towards explaining how it remained unrecorded for so long.

The find came about almost as a footnote to a larger investigation. Archaeologist Tracy Collins was examining a nearby ancient road known as Bóthar na bhFian, a name that translates roughly from Irish as the Road of the Fianna, the legendary warrior band of Irish mythology. Collins noted that the road's character on the ground was reminiscent of a cursus, a type of long, narrow Neolithic ceremonial enclosure typically defined by parallel banks or ditches, and often associated with procession or ritual movement through the landscape. It was during this inspection that Collins spotted the standing stone sitting 5 metres to the west of the road's western edge, well within what she described as the zone of archaeological potential associated with the route. The stone sits 45 metres south of a ringfort, a roughly circular enclosed settlement common across early medieval Ireland, and the combination of road, enclosure, and upright stone in such close proximity suggests the area may have held significance across more than one period of prehistory and early history. The findings were published in 2004 and logged on the excavations.ie database as the 2002 record number 1119.

The stone lies in upland pasture in Ballyroe Upper, approximately 175 metres northeast of the townland boundary with Ballinlyna and 130 metres northwest of a substantial forestry plantation. An old roadway runs just 5 metres to its east. Given that nothing is currently visible in aerial imagery, anyone making their way out here should be prepared for the possibility that the stone is obscured by vegetation or has settled further into the ground since Collins recorded it. The surrounding landscape, with its layered archaeology of ancient road, ringfort, and now this small upright stone, repays slow, careful attention even if the stone itself proves elusive on the day.