Linear markings scored across its upper surface were interpreted on at least three separate occasions, in 1939, 1941, and 1946, as pseudo-ogham, a term used for markings that resemble ogham without conforming to the early medieval Irish alphabet's strict system of notches and strokes cut along a central stem line. The idea that even a rough approximation of that script might survive on a low field stone in County Kerry is not surprising; the Dingle Peninsula has one of the highest concentrations of genuine ogham stones anywhere in Ireland. The disappointment, then, is understated but real: later examination concluded that the markings are most likely natural or accidental, the result of weathering, splitting, or some incidental scrape rather than any human intention to inscribe.

The stone itself is modest by any measure. It stands just 0.6 metres high, though it is notably wide at 0.84 metres and relatively thin at 0.29 metres, oriented on a northeast to southwest axis. It sits roughly 300 metres from the northern shore of Castlemaine Harbour and about 30 metres west of a small southward-flowing stream. Its dimensions and placement were recorded by J. Cuppage in the 1986 Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey, a systematic study of the antiquities of the Corca Dhuibhne region. The earlier claims about pseudo-ogham had appeared in publications associated with the Corca Dhuibhne Field Club in the late 1930s and 1940s, and it took several decades before a more sceptical reading prevailed. That arc, from hopeful inscription to probable accident, is itself a small history of how archaeological interpretation shifts over time.