Just over a metre tall and roughly half a metre across in both directions, it is an irregular block rather than a neatly shaped pillar, and its long axis runs from northwest to southeast, an alignment that may or may not be intentional but is the kind of detail that tends to linger in the mind once you notice it.

Standing stones of this type are scattered across Cork and the wider Irish landscape in considerable numbers. They are among the least understood monument types in Irish archaeology; most are thought to date somewhere within the Bronze Age, roughly 2500 to 500 BC, though firm dating is difficult without associated finds or excavation. Their purposes have been argued over at length, with suggestions ranging from territorial markers and commemorative monuments to components of now-lost ritual landscapes. The Knockahorrea stone, recorded in the Archaeological Inventory of County Cork, is modest in scale compared to some of its counterparts, but its irregular, unshaped form is entirely typical of the tradition, where the stone was often chosen and placed with minimal working rather than carved or dressed into a regular shape.