The stone stands 1.5 metres tall and is notably flat and rectangular, measuring roughly 1.15 metres across and only 0.25 metres in depth, giving it something closer to the profile of a broad slab than a rounded boulder. It is oriented along a northeast-southwest axis, an alignment that recurs across many Irish standing stones and that archaeologists have long associated, though not conclusively, with solar or lunar sightlines.

Standing stones of this kind are among the most enigmatic monuments in the Irish landscape. They were erected primarily during the Bronze Age, roughly between 2500 and 500 BC, though some may date earlier or later, and their precise function remains debated. They have been interpreted variously as territorial markers, assembly points, burial indicators, and astronomical devices, and in many cases they were probably several of these things at once. What sets the Gortloughra example apart is its position. Placed on a ridge with extensive views both to the north and south, it commands the kind of open, elevated ground that would have made it visible from a considerable distance in either direction, and from which the surrounding landscape would have read like a single continuous panorama.