What has re-emerged is a panel roughly 2.8 metres by 1.8 metres, carrying an unusually varied repertoire of cup and ring marks, the term used for the prehistoric abstract carvings, widespread across Atlantic Europe, in which a small hemispherical depression, the cup, is surrounded by one or more incised concentric rings. At Derreeny, the carver or carvers were working through several variations: four cups with a single ring, two with double rings, and one cup enclosed by a triple ring reaching up to 19 centimetres across. Beside that last motif sits a line of three plain cup marks, as if placed in deliberate relationship with it. Elsewhere on the surface, a cup and ring is encircled by a cluster of smaller cups in what is described as a rosette arrangement, spanning 24 centimetres, a motif that appears at only a handful of sites. There are also eight confirmed cup marks and two probable ones, one of which has a short arc curving beside it, possibly the beginning of a ring that was never completed.

What makes the Derreeny panel particularly interesting is the condition in which it was found. The rock surface shows almost no lichen on the decorated area, and the geological striations, natural fissures in the stone that cross each other at nearly right angles, remain sharply defined. Lichen colonises exposed rock over long periods, so its absence here strongly suggests the carved surface has only recently come to light, perhaps uncovered by erosion, shifting vegetation, or disturbance of the surrounding ground. The carvings themselves appear correspondingly fresh, their edges well-preserved rather than softened by centuries of weathering. Cup and ring art is generally associated with the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods, making the motifs several thousand years old even if the surface has only lately re-emerged into the open air. The panel was reported by Ken Williams, who also compiled the formal record of the site.