Known in Irish as Gallan na Cille Bige, meaning the Pillar of the Small Church, it stands in level pasture to the north of Kenmare Bay, surrounded by smaller stones that do not arrange themselves into any tidy circle. The name points to something ecclesiastical, some connection to a small church or oratory long since vanished, yet the stone itself offers no explanation.

By 1841, when a field researcher recorded the site, even local memory had gone silent on the matter. The note from that year is candid about the gap: the stone was described as very remarkable, set about 200 metres east of the parish church, with several smaller stones around it, but no tradition in connection with its origin or use had survived. A gallán, the Irish term for a standing stone of this kind, typically dates from prehistory, though names and associations could be layered onto such monuments across many subsequent centuries. The 1846 Ordnance Survey six-inch map added a further detail, indicating a circular feature of roughly 20 metres in diameter around the stone, possibly formed by those smaller stones. Two large boulders also sit on the site, the larger measuring over three metres in length, though these appear to be natural rather than deliberately placed.