It measures two and a half metres in length and could easily be mistaken for a stray field stone, except that the geometry of the thing, the way it slopes and narrows towards that buried end, suggests it may once have stood upright. The uncertainty is part of what makes it worth pausing over: this could be a fallen standing stone, a prehistoric marker that has been tilting and sinking for millennia, or something that was always closer to horizontal than the term "standing stone" implies.

The ridge runs east to west, and from it there is a clear view northwest towards Bantry Bay, a sightline that may not be coincidental. Prehistoric monuments in Ireland were frequently oriented with care, whether towards landmarks, seasonal sunrises and sunsets, or other sites in the landscape. That last possibility is particularly interesting here, because roughly 280 metres to the northeast lies a multiple-stone circle. Multiple-stone circles, a form of prehistoric monument especially common in the Cork and Kerry region, typically consist of five or more upright stones arranged in a ring, often with a recumbent stone laid flat on one side. Whether the slab at Shandrum Beg was ever formally connected to that circle is unknown, but their proximity on the same ridge is the kind of detail that keeps archaeologists cautious about treating either site in isolation.