Its face is concave and broken, the kind of natural feature that could pass for ordinary geology to anyone walking by without context. But this stone at Knockroe belongs to a long tradition of holy or saint's stones, boulders and outcrops that acquired sacred meaning through their association with early Christian figures and, over generations, became sites of local veneration.

This particular stone is traditionally linked to St Kevin, the sixth-century hermit monk whose name is most closely associated with Glendalough, a few miles to the west. Kevin's legend spread well beyond the monastic city he founded, and stones, wells, and natural features across the surrounding landscape came to carry his name, preserving a geography of devotion that predates any written record. A saint's stone of this type often acquired its significance through a story, sometimes a miracle, sometimes the physical impression of a saint's body said to be left in the rock, and sometimes simply through long habit of prayer at a particular place. The concave surface of the Knockroe boulder would have been well suited to such an association, inviting the idea of a hollow worn by use or by something more than time.