That small detail, the fact that it is clear of the surface, is what transforms it from a geological curiosity into something archaeologically significant. This is a boulder-burial, a monument type in which a substantial capstone is raised, however minimally, above the earth, typically over a burial deposit. They are found across the south-west of Ireland and remain, in many ways, poorly understood.

The boulder itself measures 2.2 metres by 1.2 metres and stands 1.2 metres high, a solid presence on ground that sits at roughly 70 metres above sea level. The surrounding land was formerly rough grazing, later planted with conifers that have since been felled, leaving the kind of open, scoured landscape that makes ancient monuments easier to spot but harder to read. About 100 metres to the south-south-west lies a wedge tomb, a type of megalithic gallery grave characteristic of the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age, narrowing towards one end and typically aligned with the setting sun. The proximity of the two monuments suggests this stretch of hillside held some ceremonial or funerary significance across a long period of prehistory. The boulder-burial was reported to archaeologists by a local man, Seán O'Mahony.