The stone is traditionally held to be the surface upon which the Treaty of Limerick was signed in October 1691, ending the Williamite War in Ireland and marking the defeat of the Jacobite cause. Whether or not a quill ever actually touched this particular piece of limestone, it became an object of collective memory, and the city has treated it as such ever since.

The Treaty of Limerick itself was agreed between the Jacobite commander Patrick Sarsfield and the Williamite forces following a prolonged siege of the city. Its terms promised certain protections for Irish Catholics and for the soldiers of the Jacobite army, though many of those promises were subsequently broken by the Irish Parliament, a betrayal that cast a long shadow over the document and sharpened the symbolic weight attached to the stone itself. The stone was originally positioned beside Thomond Bridge, the ancient crossing point over the Shannon that connects the older Thomond side of the city to the newer districts, and it was later moved a short distance northward to its present location, where it sits on a raised pedestal that lifts it to a more ceremonial height.

The stone stands on the Thomond side of the river, close to the bridge itself, and is straightforward to reach on foot from the city centre. It is an outdoor monument with no restricted access or opening hours, so time of year matters little in practical terms, though the riverside setting is more agreeable in dry weather. Visitors coming from King John's Castle, which is visible nearby, will find it a natural extension of a walk through this part of the city. The stone itself is modest in size and unremarkable in appearance, which is rather the point; its significance lies entirely in what was attributed to it, and looking at it carefully, that gap between the ordinary object and the enormous history attached to it is the most interesting thing about it.