This is a boulder-burial, a monument type found almost exclusively in Munster, in which a substantial capstone is raised on low supports over a burial, creating something between a table and a threshold. At Cappanaboul, one support stone is still visible beneath the cover-stone, which measures 1.6 metres by 1.5 metres and sits at a thickness of around 0.7 metres. The scale is modest, but the placement is deliberate and precise.

What makes this particular example unusual is its position within a multiple-stone circle, meaning the boulder-burial does not stand alone but occupies the centre of a wider ring of standing stones. The combination of the two monument types at the one location is rare and suggests the site carried considerable ceremonial significance during the Bronze Age, when both forms were in use across this part of Ireland. The monument sits on a small natural platform on the south-western extension of Maughanaclea hill, overlooking the Owenbeg river basin, a landscape that remains largely open and unenclosed today. The surrounding ground is bog-covered, which has likely helped preserve the low-lying stones against disturbance. The site was catalogued by Seán Ó Nualláin in 1984, as part of his systematic work on Cork's prehistoric stone monuments.