Local memory holds that it was once upright, which would make it a standing stone, one of the solitary megalithic pillars erected across Ireland during the Bronze Age, though the precise purpose of such monuments remains debated. Whether it fell through the slow work of weather and soil, or was deliberately toppled at some point, is not recorded.

What makes the situation at Loughane quietly interesting is the clustering of monuments in the immediate area. Roughly a hundred metres to the west sits a ringfort, the circular earthwork enclosures that were the typical farmstead of early medieval Ireland, typically dating from around 500 to 1000 AD. Close to that is another feature identified as a possible standing stone, which means this modest slope may once have held a modest concentration of prehistoric and early medieval activity. The prostrate stone at Loughane fits a pattern seen elsewhere in Cork and across Ireland, where ancient uprights end up horizontal, their original significance reduced to a low grass-covered hump that most walkers would step over without a second thought.