But the standing stone at Carrigaloe repays a closer look, partly because of what it is made of and partly because of how deliberately it seems to have been placed. At just under 1.75 metres tall, it is not a giant among its kind, yet whoever set it here clearly gave thought to its orientation and its hold on the ground.

The stone is grey sandstone conglomerate, a rock type embedded with quartz pebble inclusions that catch the light in a way plain sandstone would not. Roughly rectangular in plan, it tapers towards the top and is orientated on a north-south axis, with its broader faces turned to the east and west. The top surface slopes upward towards the north rather than lying flat. Around the base, packing stones were used to stabilise it, a detail that confirms deliberate erection rather than natural deposition. The stone sits on a gentle north-northwest-facing slope in undulating terrain, with open views northward but rising ground cutting off the outlook to the east, south, and, to a degree, the west. Whether the view to the north mattered to the people who erected it is unknown, but the placement on a slope that opens in that direction is unlikely to be accidental. Standing stones of this kind are a recurring feature of the Irish prehistoric landscape, and while their precise function remains debated, they are generally understood to have served ritual, commemorative, or territorial purposes.