It is not large by the standards of the tradition; three-quarters of a metre tall, roughly square in plan, and only forty centimetres thick, with its long axis running north-east to south-west. Standing stones of this kind are among the most enigmatic survivals of prehistoric Ireland. Erected during the Bronze Age in most cases, their precise purposes remain debated, with theories ranging from territorial markers and burial indicators to astronomical alignments and ritual focal points. This one offers no easy answers.

The stone's rectangular form and modest dimensions are fairly typical of the scattered standing stones that appear throughout Cork's upland and marginal landscapes, places that were once worked or ceremonially used and have since reverted to rough ground. The north-east to south-west alignment is shared by a number of other standing stones in the region, though whether that reflects deliberate astronomical orientation or simply the lie of the land is not something the stone itself reveals. What can be said is that somebody, at some point in the deep past, chose this particular spot on a sloping pasture in Glenaknockane and went to the considerable trouble of raising and fixing a block of stone there. That act of placing, however opaque its meaning now, is what keeps these small monuments worth seeking out.