That position, somewhere in the interior of a multi-vallate hillfort, meaning a fort enclosed by several concentric banks and ditches rather than just one, is itself a puzzle. Standing stones in Ireland are usually solitary landmarks in open landscape; finding one nested within the layered defences of a hillfort raises questions that nobody has yet fully answered.

The stone is triangular at its base, measuring roughly 0.42 metres by 0.72 metres, and rises to a height of 1.47 metres. In plan it is rhomboid, with its long axis running north to south. It sits 310 metres south-east of the hillfort's summit and 35 metres north-north-west of the fourth rampart, now within commercial forestry. In August 2015, Professor William O'Brien of University College Cork conducted a sample excavation at Tinoran under licence number 15E0321, as part of a broader Irish Research Council-funded research project investigating prehistoric hillforts across Ireland. A trench was opened across the levelled defences in a pasture field in the south-east quadrant of the hillfort, approximately 50 metres south of the standing stone. Whether the stone predates the hillfort, was erected during its occupation, or marks something else entirely remains an open question, one that the 2015 work was only beginning to approach.