Its absence from both those surveys is itself a small puzzle: either it was overlooked by cartographers working the area, or it had been toppled and re-erected in the intervening years, or it simply escaped notice in the way that low-lying agricultural land sometimes swallows the evidence of earlier occupation.

The stone, located at Cnoc An Iúir, the hill of the yew tree, stands 1.1 metres high and measures roughly a metre by 0.95 metres at its base, making it a relatively modest example of a class of monument that appears across Ireland from the Bronze Age onwards. Standing stones, which are exactly what the name suggests, single upright blocks set deliberately into the ground, are among the most enigmatic survivals in the Irish landscape. Their original purposes are rarely certain; theories range from boundary markers and astronomical alignments to memorials and ritual focal points. This particular stone is irregular in plan, with its long axis oriented roughly north-northeast to south-southwest, a detail that may or may not carry significance depending on what, if anything, was being observed or marked at the time of its erection.

The surrounding pasture and the proximity of a modern dwelling give the site an everyday quality. There is no dramatic elevation, no obvious congregation of monuments nearby based on what is known. It is simply a stone that has been standing in a field for a very long time, outlasting whatever purpose first put it there.