It sits on a natural terrace in the townland of Doory, and its proportions give it an almost architectural quality: the sides rise nearly vertically for roughly half the stone's height before gradually tapering to a pointed top. At its base it is rectangular in plan, measuring just over a metre by forty-two centimetres, and its long axis runs on a north-east to south-west alignment.

Standing stones of this kind were erected during prehistory, most likely in the Bronze Age, though their precise purposes remain a matter of debate among archaeologists. They appear across the Irish landscape singly and in groupings, sometimes marking territorial boundaries, sometimes associated with burial, and sometimes oriented towards astronomical events in ways that suggest a concern with the movements of the sun or moon. What makes the Doory stone particularly interesting is its proximity to a stone row, a linear arrangement of multiple upright stones, located approximately 150 metres to the west. Stone rows are a recurring feature of the Kerry and Cork uplands, and the relationship between a single prominent monolith and a nearby row raises questions about how these monuments were conceived and used together, whether as a sequence, a sight-line, or something else entirely. The Iveragh Peninsula holds an unusually dense concentration of such prehistoric monuments, and the Doory stone, given its exceptional height, would have been visible from a considerable distance across the surrounding terrain.