This is a boulder-burial, a type of megalithic monument found predominantly in the south-west of Ireland, in which a substantial capstone is raised clear of the ground by a small number of uprights or boulders. The Knockoura example is modest but complete: the slab measures roughly 1.6 metres by 1.76 metres and sits about 25 centimetres thick, giving it a low, compressed presence rather than the dramatic height of a dolmen.

Boulder-burials are among the less studied members of Ireland's megalithic family. They are generally associated with the Bronze Age, though their precise function and the communities that built them remain subjects of ongoing discussion. What is clear is that they were deliberate constructions, the product of considerable effort to source, move, and seat a heavy capstone on carefully chosen supports. The Knockoura stone has not been left entirely to its own devices by the landscape around it. Tree roots from the surrounding forestry plantation have begun growing into the capstone itself, a slow process of natural encroachment that, over time, can shift or fracture even substantial stone.