What makes it quietly notable is not just its height of 2.95 metres, or the fact that it tapers with unusual regularity from a base of 0.8 metres by 0.4 metres to a neat point, but what was lost nearby within living memory. Early in the twentieth century, drainage work in the surrounding land turned up something remarkable and then, almost immediately, destroyed it.

The object removed during those drainage operations was described by Ua Riain in 1927 as a large flat flag supported by a single stone at each of its four corners. The phrase calls to mind a boulder-burial, a prehistoric funerary form in which a substantial capstone is raised just clear of the ground on small supporting stones, covering what may have been human remains or votive deposits. The connection between standing stones and such burials is well attested in the Irish archaeological record; the two monument types are frequently found in close proximity, suggesting a shared ceremonial or commemorative function. No trace of the structure at Cahernaman survives today. The drainage work that uncovered it also erased it, leaving only the written account and the stone itself, still upright in its soggy field.