It is not a natural outcrop left behind by geology; the packing stones wedged around its base confirm that someone chose this spot, prepared the ground, and set it upright.

The stone sits on a northeast to southwest alignment, a characteristic it shares with many Irish standing stones, some of which are thought to correspond to solar or lunar events on the horizon, though no such specific purpose has been established here. At 0.4 metres deep it is relatively flat, more slab than pillar, and its considerable width gives it a presence that would have been visible across the surrounding hillside long before the adjacent conifer plantation interrupted the sightlines. The Derrynasaggart range straddles the Cork and Kerry border, and this part of its southern slope sits in quiet upland country where prehistoric monuments are not unusual, even if the reasons behind individual stones remain largely opaque. Standing stones of this kind are generally dated to the Bronze Age, though without excavation around the base it is rarely possible to be more precise than that broad span of roughly two thousand years.