On an 1843 estate map, it is annotated simply as a 'Rubbing Stone', the kind of upright rock against which cattle scratch themselves, a label that may have obscured, perhaps deliberately, perhaps accidentally, whatever older purpose the stone once served. It does not appear on any Ordnance Survey historic maps, which means it slipped past the standard channels of archaeological record-keeping entirely. Only the estate documents preserved it at all.

The stone sits in pasture roughly 40 metres north of a local road that runs along the townland boundary between Oldtown and Barrysfarm in County Limerick. Its possible identity as a standing stone, a prehistoric upright megalith typically associated with ritual, territorial marking, or astronomical alignment, was proposed by researcher Brian Hodkinson in 2008, working from an estate map of Oldtown Ryan. That map was drawn up for the estate of the Earl of Kenmare and is held at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland under reference D4151/S/3. The practical annotation 'Rubbing Stone' on that 1843 document is what kept the stone visible in the historical record, even if its prehistoric credentials remained unexamined for well over a century. The site was compiled by Martin Fitzpatrick and uploaded to the Irish Archaeological Register in April 2021.

The stone's outline can be picked out on Ordnance Survey Ireland orthophotography taken between 2005 and 2012, and on a Google Earth image dated 20 September 2020, so it is clearly still present in the field. Access is from the local road along the townland boundary, with the stone sitting in what remains working agricultural pasture, so any visit should be made with the usual courtesies toward landowners and grazing animals in mind. It has not been formally excavated or confirmed as prehistoric, and that ambiguity is part of what makes it worth attention: a stone with two identities, one mundane and one potentially ancient, waiting for further investigation to settle the question.