It is a modest thing by any measure, just over a metre tall and roughly rectangular in plan, oriented along a north-south axis. That deliberate orientation is, in its quiet way, the detail that distinguishes it from a naturally occurring boulder. Standing stones, set upright in the landscape during the prehistoric period, are thought to have served a variety of purposes, from territorial or route markers to sites of ceremonial significance, though definitive answers about individual examples remain elusive.

This particular stone sits in rough pasture on bog ground in the valley of the Cooleenlemane River in Farranfadda, County Cork. Its dimensions, 1.05 metres high, 1.05 metres long, and 0.4 metres wide, place it at the smaller end of the spectrum for such monuments, which range across Ireland from knee-high slabs to towering pillars several metres tall. The rectangular form and the consistent north-south alignment suggest it was placed with intention rather than convenience, though what that intention was is now impossible to say with certainty. The valley setting, with its wet ground and open slope, is typical of the kind of marginal landscape where these stones are often found, perhaps because such land was less likely to be cleared or ploughed in later centuries, leaving the stone undisturbed.