Of the nine stones that probably once defined this prehistoric monument in rough pasture near the headwaters of the Rathcoola River, six remain upright and two have fallen. That partial survival is common enough in the Cork landscape, but what distinguishes Gowlane is its retained sense of intention: the axial stone is still in place, the radially-set entrance stones still frame a threshold, and two further standing stones beyond the entrance form a short passage roughly 2.4 metres in length. The circle reads, even in its diminished state, as a designed space rather than a scatter of old masonry.

The monument belongs to a tradition of multiple-stone circles found across Cork and Kerry, many of which share this same structural grammar: a defined axis, a portal entrance, and an orientation that appears to reflect deliberate astronomical or ceremonial thinking. Here the main axis runs roughly north-northeast to south-southwest, with an internal measurement of approximately 6.5 metres. The individual orthostats, the upright slabs that form the circle itself, range from 0.5 to 1.6 metres in length and stand between 0.7 and 0.95 metres in height. They are modest in scale, as these Cork circles often are, but the consistency of their placement suggests careful original laying-out. Seán Ó Nualláin, whose 1984 survey remains a foundational study of the stone circle tradition in the region, documented Gowlane as part of a broader corpus that helped establish how widespread and coherent this prehistoric building practice was across Munster.