It is not a prehistoric monument, nor a burial mound. It is, or was, a marker: a boundary cairn placed at the precise point where the townland boundary between Erriff to the west and Aghavoghil to the east changes its bearing from a south-to-north line to a direction slightly west of north.

The only cartographic record of it appears on the 1910 edition of the Ordnance Survey six-inch map, where it is noted in the characteristically understated italic lettering of that series simply as a "Pile of Stones". Townland boundaries in Ireland were not always marked by walls or ditches; on open or elevated ground, a cairn placed on a local rise served the same purpose, giving surveyors, landowners, and anyone settling a territorial dispute a fixed, visible point of reference. This one sits on a slight elevation within the plateau, which would have made it useful as a sighting point even if its modest height would not have made it visible from any great distance.