That it landed the right way up is either good fortune or a pleasing coincidence, because the stone in question is a bullaun stone, a type of worked or naturally hollowed boulder associated with early medieval religious sites across Ireland, whose defining feature is a smooth, rounded basin cut or worn into its surface. This one carries a circular depression measuring approximately 0.3 metres across and 0.15 metres deep, positioned close to one edge of the flat upper face.

For a long time, only that flat surface was visible at ground level, the rest of the boulder buried and embedded in the field in Moanaha Glen, just south of the Nenagh River. A 1967 reference by Raftery recorded it in that half-hidden state. The situation changed when the surrounding field was reclaimed. During that process the boulder was lifted free and moved to the riverbank to the north, at which point it slipped or fell into the river below. Adding further interest to the original site, a cross-inscribed stone was found close by, suggesting that the location, unremarkable farmland by the time of modern reclamation, may once have had some early Christian significance. The two stones together, a bullaun and a cross-carved slab in proximity, are a pairing that turns up at a number of early ecclesiastical sites around Ireland, though what specific function or ritual the bullaun served at this particular spot is not recorded.