Stones like this are known in Irish as gallán, a term for a standing stone set upright in the ground, usually prehistoric in origin, though their precise purposes remain a matter of debate among archaeologists. This one has a roughly rectangular cross-section, broad and solid at the base, and is oriented along a north-east to south-west axis, a directional alignment shared by many standing stones across Ireland.

What gives this particular stone a small additional layer of interest is the way cartographers recorded it over time. On the Ordnance Survey six-inch map of 1839, it appears simply as "a stone", a plain and utilitarian label. By the time a revised edition was produced in 1940, however, it had been re-designated as a "Gallan" rendered in the distinctive gothic script that the Ordnance Survey traditionally used to mark antiquities and features of historical note. That shift in labelling reflects a gradual, century-long process by which Ireland's landscape features were recognised, catalogued, and given their proper archaeological identities. The stone itself had not changed; the understanding of what it represented had.