That these stones survived at all is, in itself, something of an accident.

The stones originated in a souterrain, an underground stone-built passage typically associated with an Early Christian period rath, or circular earthwork enclosure, in the townland of Rockfield Middle in County Kerry. Souterrains were commonly used for storage or refuge, and it appears that at some point, six ogham stones, the distinctive upright pillars bearing early Irish inscriptions in a system of notches and lines carved along the stone's edge, were built into the roof of this one as convenient lintels, their inscriptions largely forgotten. In 1891, Barry recorded their discovery. By the time Macalister examined the site in 1945, four had already been removed and used in the construction of a cottage in the village of Laharan. Three of those four were subsequently acquired by Lord Dunraven and brought to his mansion at Adare, where they remain. The fourth stone, left behind in Laharan, was recorded by Macalister as 'now lost to sight'. One of the three stones now at Adare, described by Brash in 1879 as an irregular pillar of pale red sandstone standing roughly 1.25 metres above ground, bears an inscription that Macalister read as MAQI-RITTE MAQI COLABOT MAQI MOCO QERAI, a formulaic Early Irish genealogical phrase naming a person and their lineage.

The stones are held at Adare Manor, the Gothic Revival mansion associated with the Dunraven estate in the village of Adare. Access to the stones themselves is not straightforward, as the mansion now operates as a hotel, and the stones are not on open public display in the way that a museum exhibit would be. Anyone with a particular interest in tracking them down would do well to make enquiries in advance rather than arriving and expecting to wander freely. The broader context of where these stones came from, a Kerry souterrain where they lay unread for centuries, is in some ways as compelling as the inscriptions themselves.