The standing stone at Ballyhemiken in County Cork did not get that chance. Measuring roughly a metre in height and three-quarters of a metre across, it was removed sometime in the 1960s during land reclamation work, leaving behind no visible trace in the field where it once stood.

What makes its loss particularly interesting is a possible paper trail stretching back decades before it disappeared. A writer named O'Leary, documenting the area in 1919, described what may have been the same stone: a block of limestone with a curved top, measuring 32 inches by 24 inches by 14 inches. The dimensions are broadly consistent, and the detail of the curved top suggests something that had been shaped or selected with some care, whether by natural weathering or deliberate dressing. Standing stones of this kind are found across Ireland, erected variously as boundary markers, ritual focal points, or monuments to the dead, though the specific purpose of any individual stone is rarely certain. Whether the O'Leary stone and the Ballyhemiken stone are truly one and the same is not confirmed, but the proximity in description is enough to make the identification plausible.