What sets it apart from many of its prehistoric counterparts is its shape: diamond-shaped when viewed from above, with each face cut to a roughly rectangular section. It is not a rough-hewn slab thrust awkwardly into the earth, but something that suggests deliberate geometry, even at this modest scale.

Standing stones of this kind are scattered across Cork and Kerry in considerable numbers, and while their exact purposes remain contested among archaeologists, they are generally associated with the Bronze Age, serving variously as territorial markers, ritual focal points, or astronomical indicators. The orientation of the Farranamanagh example along the northeast to southwest axis may or may not carry significance, though alignment with seasonal sunrise or sunset points is a feature noted at other standing stones across Ireland. The stone itself measures 0.8 metres wide and 0.61 metres deep, and stands 1.38 metres high, placing it on the smaller end of the spectrum but no less precise for that. It sits on a gentle south-facing slope that looks out over Dunmanus Bay, one of the long finger-like sea inlets that cut into the south-western Cork coastline between the Mizen and Sheep's Head peninsulas.