It does not appear on the Ordnance Survey six-inch sheets, nor on the Discovery Series map published as late as 1996, which means it spent decades, perhaps centuries, unrecorded while cattle used it as a scratching post. The ground around its base has sunk noticeably as a result of that long and unhurried attention, leaving the stone presiding over a slight hollow of its own making.

The stone was first formally noted by J. Curtin in a 2008 article in the North Munster Antiquarian Journal. It stands 136 centimetres tall, 36 centimetres wide, and 26 centimetres thick, set on a low hill in good farmland on the edge of the west Limerick escarpment, west of Shanagolden village along the Kerry Hill road. What makes its position more than incidental is its alignment: the stone points southwest to northeast, directly towards Knockpatrick Hill, a orientation that Curtin suggests may have carried ritual meaning for the Bronze Age farming communities who erected it. Standing stones, which are single upright monoliths raised during the Bronze Age and sometimes earlier, are often found in landscapes that held ceremonial or communal significance, and the Cloonyclohassy example does not stand alone in this regard. A kilometre to its west lie two further standing stones of comparable size, documented in the same journal in 2002, and the clustering of three such monuments within a short distance points to sustained prehistoric activity across this stretch of countryside.

The stone sits in a private pasture field, so access would require landowner permission. The hill location means the approach involves crossing working farmland, and appropriate footwear is advisable given the soft ground around the base. Once there, views open up considerably to the north and east across the surrounding countryside. The alignment towards Knockpatrick Hill is clearest on a day with good visibility to the southwest, and it is worth pausing to consider that the two companion stones recorded to the west are within easy walking distance, making it possible to take in the broader pattern of Bronze Age presence across this quiet corner of west Limerick.