Standing stones in Ireland are typically prehistoric, raised somewhere between the Bronze Age and the early medieval period, and they do not generally carry Victorian-era initials and dates. Whatever prompted someone in 1858 to climb up and mark this ancient upright, the gesture sits oddly against a monument of considerably greater age.

The stone itself is rectangular in section, measuring 1.4 metres across and 0.35 metres deep, and it is oriented along a northeast-southwest axis, a alignment that recurs frequently among Irish standing stones and may reflect astronomical or ritual considerations, though their precise original purpose remains a matter of debate among archaeologists. It stands in pasture at Moneens in County Cork, with what the record describes as commanding views to the northeast. The 1858 inscription appears on the upper portion of the northwest face, carved with enough deliberateness to suggest it was meant to last. The initials ZCH are unusual; they do not correspond obviously to a common Irish name of the period, which makes their origin all the more intriguing. Whether this was a landowner marking territory, a surveyor leaving a reference point, or simply someone with a chisel and a desire to be remembered, is not known.