What makes it quietly notable is the word "third". There are at least two others like it on the island, which suggests this was a site where upright stones, the kind often associated with early Christian commemoration or boundary marking, were deliberately placed in relation to the building itself.

Pillar stones of this type are a recurring feature of early Irish ecclesiastical sites, sometimes marking graves, sometimes serving as territorial or devotional markers, and sometimes carrying inscriptions in ogham, the early medieval script formed from notches and strokes along a central line. Whether this particular stone ever bore any such markings is not recorded. What is known is its position, set deliberately against the church doorway's southern side, a placement that implies intention rather than accident. The Iveragh Peninsula has one of the densest concentrations of early medieval ecclesiastical remains in Ireland, and Church Island sits within that broader landscape of monastic and devotional activity that characterised the region from roughly the sixth century onwards.