The stone at Gortavehy in mid Cork was absent from the six-inch OS maps of both 1842 and 1904, meaning it attracted no official cartographic attention during the long period when such monuments were routinely being documented across the Irish countryside. That absence alone gives it a particular character, the sense of something that persisted on its own terms, unremarked in the pasture on a north-facing slope.

The stone itself is modest but purposeful in its dimensions: 1.2 metres tall, roughly 1.1 metres by 0.54 metres in cross-section, and subrectangular in plan, meaning it has an approximately rectangular outline rather than a cleanly worked geometric shape. Its long axis runs east to west, an orientation that may or may not be meaningful given how many Irish standing stones show deliberate alignment, though no specific astronomical or ritual significance has been established for this particular example. What adds a small layer of complexity is the presence of possible support stones at the base on its north side, which raises the question of whether the stone has shifted or settled over time, or whether those supports were placed there deliberately from the beginning to keep it upright in the sloping ground.