Somewhere between 2015 and whenever you happen to visit, this standing stone stopped standing. The Old Red Sandstone monolith at Monadiha in County Waterford now lies flat in the shallow hollow it once occupied, resting on two grassy hummocks as though it simply sat down after a long watch. For most of its recorded existence it was upright, surveyed in 1989 at 1.05 metres above ground, with a neat rectangular cross-section of 0.54 by 0.45 metres and a notably flat base. That base tells its own quiet story: measurements of the stone's total length suggest that only around 0.1 metres was ever buried, which is a surprisingly shallow footing for something meant to endure across millennia. Cattle grazing had also eroded the surrounding ground by as much as 0.15 metres over time, which may have gradually undermined whatever stability the stone once had.

The monolith is cut from Old Red Sandstone, the deep-red sedimentary rock that underlies much of Munster and gives the landscape around the Comeragh and Knockmealdown ranges its particular warm, russet tone. It is roughly aligned north to south, a orientation shared by many prehistoric standing stones across Ireland, though whether this reflects astronomical intent, territorial marking, or something else entirely remains, as usual, a matter of ongoing debate rather than settled fact. What is clear is that whoever chose this spot had an eye for the wider landscape. From the gentle north-east-facing slope where the stone sits in pasture, Slievenamon is visible to the north-north-west, the Comeragh Mountains can be seen over the crest of the hill to the south, and there is an open eastward view across lower ground. The western prospect is partially blocked by the rise of the slope, though mountains are visible beyond it.

The stone is not especially large, and lying flat it is easy to overlook. What rewards a closer look is the geometry of it: the rectangular cross-section is precise enough to suggest deliberate shaping, and the flat bottom surface, measuring 0.37 by 0.34 metres, has a almost worked quality to it. Whether the stone can or will be re-erected is not recorded, but as it lies it preserves the full length, 1.15 metres, of a monument that local knowledge held upright for as long as anyone could remember.