Unremarkable to the casual eye, it is reputed to have served as a mass rock, one of the improvised outdoor altars used by Catholic priests during the Penal Laws of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when the practice of the Catholic faith was suppressed under British colonial legislation. Congregations would gather at remote or inconspicuous spots, often with a lookout posted, to receive the sacraments in secret. A flat stone, natural or otherwise, would serve as the altar.

What makes this particular stone quietly interesting is its relationship to the surrounding archaeology. It sits immediately to the south of a ringfort, the circular earthwork enclosures that dot the Irish countryside and date predominantly from the early medieval period, roughly 500 to 1000 AD. Whether the proximity was deliberate is not recorded, but it would not be unusual. Marginal or already-ancient features of the landscape were sometimes chosen precisely because they were peripheral to everyday movement and therefore less likely to attract unwanted attention. The stone itself does not appear on aerial photography, which is a reminder of how easily such objects dissolve back into their surroundings once you are not standing directly beside them.