But this particular stone, sitting to the east of Kilmoe church on a gentle slope overlooking the sea, has been standing in more or less the same attitude for thousands of years, its long axis deliberately aligned to the northeast and southwest. That orientation is unlikely to be accidental. Standing stones across Ireland frequently reflect astronomical or landscape alignments, and the people who chose this spot and drove this stone into the ground clearly had a reason for the angle they chose, even if that reason is now lost.

The stone measures 1.7 metres in length and 0.85 metres in width, rising 1.1 metres above the ground. Modest dimensions by the standards of some prehistoric monuments, but enough to mark the land with unmistakable intention. Its precise date of erection is unknown, as is the case with the vast majority of Irish standing stones, which typically belong to the Bronze Age or thereabouts without being datable to a specific century. What can be said is that it stands in a landscape already layered with early Christian history, given its proximity to Kilmoe church, and that this corner of the Mizen Peninsula has been a place of continuous human activity across a very long span of time.

The setting adds a quiet strangeness to the visit. From the slope where the stone stands, the ground falls away toward Barley Cove, a sweeping inlet on the southwestern tip of Cork. Whatever the stone was intended to mark, signal, or commemorate, whoever erected it chose a position with a clear southward view to open water, which suggests the location itself carried meaning beyond mere convenience.