These are not random scratches but a deliberate visual programme carved onto the same surface as an ogham inscription, the ancient early medieval script that runs along the edges and angles of stones rather than across a flat field. The inscription itself is inverted relative to the cross, which suggests the two sets of markings may belong to different periods or at least different intentions, one layered over or alongside the other. Two faint circular marks were also recorded below the arrow stem, though they are no longer visible to the eye.

Ogham is an alphabet associated primarily with the early Christian centuries in Ireland, roughly the fourth to seventh centuries AD, and inscriptions typically record a personal name in the genitive case, sometimes with a patronymic. The partial text on this stone was read by the scholar R. A. S. Macalister in 1945 as MAQI MAQ(I....O)GGODIKA, a formula meaning something like "son of the son of... Oggodicas", though the middle portion is now lost. A second ogham stone from the same site was removed in the mid-nineteenth century and is now held in the National Museum of Ireland. The stone that remains stands beside one of the tombs at the site, connecting it physically to a burial context even as its carved surface raises questions that a single reading cannot resolve. The School of Celtic Studies at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies has since examined the stone as part of its Ogham in 3D project, using digital techniques to recover detail that is difficult or impossible to read with the naked eye.