It is not the height alone that makes it worth pausing over, but the deliberateness of its construction. Near the base on the north-north-east side, a packing-stone, a smaller stone wedged in to stabilise the larger, is still visible, suggesting that whoever erected this monument understood the mechanics of the task well enough to plan for it. There are also small notches cut into both the north-north-east and south-south-west edges of the stone, low down near the base, their purpose unrecorded but clearly intentional.

The stone measures 1.24 metres across and 0.32 metres in depth, and its orientation along a north-north-east to south-south-west axis is unlikely to be accidental. Standing stones, of which Ireland has several thousand surviving examples, are broadly prehistoric in origin, though pinning down any individual stone to a precise period or purpose remains difficult. Some are thought to mark boundaries or routeways, others may have astronomical alignments, and still others are associated with burial or ritual. The Gortavallig stone overlooks the Drimminboy River, which may or may not be significant; proximity to water is a recurring feature of prehistoric monuments across Ireland, though whether that reflects practical or ceremonial concerns is rarely clear. What can be said is that someone, at some point in the deep past, chose this particular spot on this particular hillside and went to considerable effort to set this stone upright and keep it there.