Narrow relative to its height, measuring just over a metre wide and less than a quarter of a metre thick, it has the quietly purposeful look of something placed rather than found. Standing stones of this kind are among the most common prehistoric monuments in Ireland, yet individually they remain poorly understood: most were erected sometime in the Bronze Age, though precise dating is rarely possible, and their original function, whether as territorial markers, ritual focal points, or commemorative monuments, is still debated.

What makes this particular stone quietly interesting is its absence from the Ordnance Survey's six-inch map of 1842, one of the most thorough cartographic surveys Ireland has ever seen. That survey was meticulous enough to record field boundaries, individual buildings, and minor antiquities across the entire country, so a monument left off it was either overlooked, obscured by vegetation or accumulated soil at the time, or perhaps not yet fully visible above ground. It sits in tillage, meaning the surrounding land has been worked as arable ground, which makes its survival in reasonably good condition all the more notable; ploughing over long periods has damaged or destroyed countless prehistoric monuments across the Irish countryside.