Sometime around 1966, during a programme of field clearance, the stone was removed from the pasture where it had presumably occupied its position for millennia. Standing stones are among the most enigmatic survivals of prehistoric Ireland, single upright slabs or pillars whose original purposes remain debated, variously proposed as territorial markers, ritual focal points, or memorials. This one is gone, leaving only a record of its former existence.

What makes the Coolowen site particularly interesting is that it was not necessarily a solitary monument. A second possible standing stone survives approximately 100 metres to the north-east, within the same field. The pairing, if both stones are indeed prehistoric and related, would suggest a deliberate arrangement in the landscape rather than an isolated erection. The removed stone was documented by Walsh in 1985, who recorded the site as part of a broader survey of Cork's prehistoric monuments. Whether the surviving candidate stone retains any visible presence in the field today is unclear, but the pairing as Walsh recorded it gives at least some sense of how the site once read across the ground.