The stone itself is modest, barely a metre in length and rising less than a metre from the ground, subtriangular in shape and fixed into the earth. What makes it quietly arresting is that the people who carved it did not simply mark the top surface and stop there. The motifs continue down over the edge, draping across the boundary between the upper face and the eastern face in a way that suggests the carvers were treating the stone as a three-dimensional object rather than a flat canvas.

The carvings belong to the tradition of prehistoric rock art found across Ireland and Atlantic Europe, typically consisting of cup marks, which are shallow circular depressions ground into stone, and cup and circle motifs, where one or more concentric rings surround a central cup. Their precise purpose remains genuinely unknown. At Ballyvorda, the top face carries two plain cup marks and six cup and circle motifs, while the eastern face holds seven more cup and circle motifs and the southern face adds two definite examples along with a possible circle and some marks that may or may not be intentional. The incisions are deep enough to create a pronounced relief effect, which is relatively unusual and has helped preserve the legibility of the designs despite a covering of lichen and moss that has long since colonised the surface. The overall condition of the carvings is described as mostly good.