The surveyors who mapped this landscape in 1842 and again in 1905 recorded no trace of it, which is a small puzzle in itself, given that the stone rises to a height of 1.45 metres and is broad enough, at roughly 1.3 metres by 1.1 metres, to be difficult to overlook. It is subcircular in plan, meaning its base is roughly rounded rather than squared off, and it tapers upward to a definite point, giving it a quietly purposeful silhouette against the sky.

Standing stones of this type are a familiar feature of the Irish countryside, though their original function is rarely certain. They are generally associated with the Bronze Age and have been interpreted variously as boundary markers, ritual monuments, or memorials, though any one stone may have served purposes entirely lost to the record. What makes the Ardskeagh example quietly interesting is precisely its absence from the historical maps. The Ordnance Survey's six-inch series was remarkably thorough, and a gap of this kind raises the possibility that the stone was buried, fallen, or otherwise obscured during both survey periods and only later restored to its upright position, or alternatively that it was always there and simply missed, which happens more often than the survey's reputation might suggest.