Nobody recorded why. The ogham inscription carved along its edge, one of the older writing systems used in early medieval Ireland in which letters are represented by notches and strokes cut along a central line, was presumably being read by whoever knew how, upside-down or not, until the stone was lifted and carried off to the Christian Brothers' monastery in Cahersiveen for safekeeping. It was returned to its original location in Killogrone shortly afterwards, this time the right way up.

The stone stands just under two metres tall and tapers to a rough point at the top. The inscription was read by the scholar R.A.S. Macalister in 1945 as ANM MOLEGOMRID MACI VECUMEN, a formula typical of early Irish ogham stones in which ANM means "name" and MACI means "son of", giving something like "the name of Molegomrid, son of Vecumen". Two of the vowels in the inscription are rendered using the forfeda, a supplementary set of ogham characters developed to cover sounds not easily expressed in the original alphabet. Macalister also noted a suspicious letter I between the M and R of the second word, which he concluded was a later, informal scratch rather than part of the original carving. The last three letters of MACI have since worn away entirely. Adding to the stone's layered history, a rough cross is carved near its base, possibly added during the early Christian period as a way of absorbing or sanctioning the older pagan monument.

The stone sits on the Iveragh Peninsula, the broad southwest Kerry landmass better known for the Ring of Kerry road. Killogrone is a quiet townland, and the stone rewards the kind of close attention that a roadside glance will not give it. Looking at the edge where the ogham strokes are cut, and knowing that someone once thought it necessary to haul this object to a monastery and back, gives the inscription an oddly personal weight.