That opening, 23 centimetres high and 11 centimetres wide, gives the pillar an oddly purposeful appearance, as though it once served some specific mechanical or ritual function. Whether the slot was part of the stone's original use or added later is not recorded, but the pillar itself has attracted two quite different official classifications: it appeared in one survey as a standing stone and in another as a possible children's burial ground, the latter category referring to a once-common Irish practice of burying unbaptised infants in unconsecrated ground, often at field boundaries or liminal spots.

The more dramatic claim attached to the stone connects it to one of the more consequential battles of early medieval Ireland. According to a tradition recorded by Walshe in 1931, the pillar marks the grave of Prince Aralt, also known as Harold, a Danish chieftain killed at the Battle of Glenmama. That battle was fought in 999 or 1000 AD, when Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill and Brian Boru combined forces to defeat the Leinstermen and their Norse allies from Dublin. The slaughter was considerable, and the dead were scattered across a wide area. If the tradition holds any weight, the stone in this Wicklow field corner may have been raised over one of those fallen men more than a thousand years ago, long before it was ever catalogued, classified, or placed under a preservation order.