What makes the stone at Áth An Charbaill quietly arresting is not just the density of its markings but the fact that, until relatively recently, a substantial portion of them lay hidden beneath a field wall. When that wall was partially cleared, further motifs emerged underneath, suggesting the decorated surface extends well beyond what any casual observer would have noticed.

The slab measures roughly 3.5 metres by 1.6 metres and is covered in a vocabulary of carved forms that typifies prehistoric rock art in Atlantic Europe: cup-marks, which are simple shallow circular depressions pecked into the stone surface, surrounded in many cases by one, two, or three concentric rings. Some of these rings are complete; others have deliberate gaps in the outer circle. Radial grooves, short lines running outward from a central cup, connect several of the motifs to neighbouring marks, and in at least one instance a curving radial line extends from an inner circle out to an external cup-mark beyond the rings entirely. The field wall documented by Julia Cuppage in the 1986 Corca Dhuibhne archaeological survey, and visible on older Ordnance Survey mapping, has since been removed, leaving the full surface more accessible to examination. Cuppage's earlier description also drew on a published drawing by a researcher named Graves from 1877, making this a site with a documented observational history stretching back well over a century. Slab-lined graves, a type of prehistoric burial in which a body is placed within a box formed from upright stone slabs, have been recorded nearby to the north and west, suggesting this landscape held particular significance across a long period.

The stone now sits within a small fenced enclosure set apart from the surrounding improved pasture, reached by a stile from a trackway to the east-south-east. The decorative elements are described as being in excellent condition, concentrated on the lower portion of the rock face, which has a south-east-facing aspect. From the enclosure there are open views across the Glounshavanowen river valley to the north and east.