The motif is modest in scale, roughly 19 centimetres across and 18 centimetres high, and much of it is obscured by a crust of white lichens. What makes it quietly arresting is the groove itself: it begins narrow at the centre, broadens as it winds outward in a clockwise direction, then tapers again as it trails off, producing a line that feels almost alive with deliberate variation. The rock face on which it sits is an upright portion of a larger outcrop recorded on Ordnance Survey historic mapping under the name Carrigameen, and a drystone boundary wall runs close by to the south.

The spiral belongs to a tradition of prehistoric rock art found across Ireland and Britain, in which abstract motifs, cups, rings, and spirals were incised into exposed stone surfaces, often at locations with commanding views or on routes between significant places. This carving sits precisely on such a route. Cosán na Naomh, meaning the Path of the Saints, is a medieval pilgrim road running from Ventry to Brandon Mountain, and this section connects the Early Christian and medieval ecclesiastical complex at Kilmalkedar to the southwest with the high ground at Corr Áille to the northeast. Whether the prehistoric carving was already ancient when pilgrims began using that route, or whether its presence influenced the path's course, is impossible to say. What is certain is that the spiral went unrecognised for what it was until 2011, when Colm Bambury identified it as rock art.

The outcrop itself offers an extensive panorama: Ballyferriter and Smerwick Harbour to the west-northwest, Ballydavid Head to the north-northwest, the Brandon Mountain range sweeping northeast to east, and Ballysitteragh Mountain to the southeast. The carved panel faces south-southeast, set into the side elevation of the outcrop rather than its flat top, which may partly explain why it escaped notice for so long. Anyone walking Cosán na Naomh in this vicinity should look carefully at the rock's vertical faces rather than its upper surface, and be prepared for the lichen cover to make the groove difficult to read except in low, raking light.