At 1.8 metres tall and relatively slender, measuring roughly 58 centimetres across and only 18 centimetres thick, it is not a particularly imposing monument by the standards of prehistoric Cork, but its placement is deliberate and its orientation almost certainly was too.

Standing stones of this kind are among the most common yet least understood monuments in the Irish landscape. They date, in most cases, to the Bronze Age, though precise dating is rarely possible without associated finds or excavation. Their purposes remain a matter of debate: some appear to mark boundaries or routeways, others may have held astronomical significance, and a number are thought to be connected with burial. The east-west alignment of the Knockbrogan stone is a detail worth noting, since solar orientations recur frequently across this class of monument. What it specifically meant to the people who raised this stone, overlooking what is now Bandon town in County Cork, is simply not known.