It is the kind of arrangement that looks, at first glance, like a trick of the landscape, until you notice the upright orthostat beneath it, a vertical slab supporting the whole structure along an east-west axis, and a second stone lying nearby at a slightly different angle, possibly a displaced side stone or end stone from what was once a more complete megalithic tomb.

Megalithic tombs of this kind are the burial monuments of Neolithic farming communities, typically built from large unworked stones to house the dead, sometimes collectively over many generations. What makes the Murneen example quietly peculiar is how thoroughly it slipped through the documentary record. It does not appear on the Ordnance Survey six-inch maps of either 1838 or 1920, which means it was either overlooked by surveyors on two separate occasions or was not yet widely recognised as an ancient monument during those periods. The tomb sits in a slight depression or dip in the ridge top, which may partly explain why it evaded notice, even as it occupies one of the more commanding positions in the area, looking out over a broad valley to the east and, on a clear day, across to Croagh Patrick on the western horizon.

The site sits in open pasture, so the stones are visible from the ridge without obstruction. The tilted capstone and the proximity of the second stone make the arrangement legible enough once you are standing close to it, even in its current reduced state.