The cairn measures roughly 14.40 metres northwest to southeast and about 33 metres northeast to southwest, making it a substantial presence in the landscape, though one that requires a careful eye to read properly. What remains of its burial chamber is reduced to two upright slabs that appear to be jambs, the flanking stones that would once have defined the entrance to the chamber, along with at least one roofstone and what may be traces of corbelling, a technique in which stones are laid in overlapping horizontal courses to form a rudimentary roof.

Court tombs are among the oldest megalithic monuments in Ireland, typically dating to the Neolithic period, roughly 4000 to 3500 BC. They are characterised by a semicircular or fully enclosed forecourt at one end, opening into a roofed gallery divided into chambers. The example at Farranyharpy belongs to this tradition, though the surviving fabric is fragmentary. The south-facing orientation of its slope is a feature seen at other Neolithic sites, where aspects of light and season appear to have influenced where communities chose to build their monuments to the dead. The limestone bedrock jutting through the pasture around it is characteristic of the broader Sligo landscape, a county unusually dense with megalithic remains.