The example at Garranes in County Cork earns a second look, however, for a reason that is quietly compelling: whoever erected it chose the spot with some care. The stone sits in open pasture with wide, open views stretching to the south-west, suggesting that its position was no accident, even if the original purpose behind that alignment has long since been lost.

The stone itself is rectangular in shape, standing 1.3 metres high and measuring roughly 0.58 by 0.4 metres across its face. It is oriented along a north-east to south-west axis, a directional choice that appears in standing stones elsewhere in Ireland and may relate to solar or lunar cycles, though no specific ritual meaning can be attached to this particular stone with any certainty. More immediately visible are the packing stones around its base, small stones wedged in to stabilise the upright when it was first set in the ground. Those packing stones, still present after what is likely thousands of years, are a small but satisfying detail: a glimpse of the practical work involved in raising even a modest standing stone, and evidence that the monument has not been re-erected or significantly disturbed in the intervening time.