It measures 2.2 metres in length and roughly 1.2 metres across, subrectangular in plan, and beside it sits the socket from which it once rose, still packed with the large stones that were used to wedge it upright. The whole arrangement is quietly legible: here is where it stood, and here is where it fell.

Standing stones of this kind are a familiar but still poorly understood feature of the Irish countryside. They were erected throughout the Bronze Age and possibly into the Iron Age, and while some are associated with burials or territorial boundaries, many resist easy interpretation. What the socket at Knocknagoun makes plain is the deliberate effort of the original construction. Packing stones were carefully selected and arranged to stabilise the upright, a detail that becomes more visible, and perhaps more poignant, once the stone itself is no longer vertical. Whether it fell through age, ground movement, or human interference is not recorded.