They are not tall, dramatic megaliths of the kind that draw visitors to more celebrated prehistoric sites. The taller of the pair reaches just 1.2 metres, roughly chest height on an average adult, and the shorter comes in at 1.05 metres. They stand only 1.1 metres apart, with a combined length of 2.5 metres, arranged in a neat northeast-to-southwest alignment. That orientation is the detail that quietly announces their purpose: paired standing stones of this kind are a recognised prehistoric monument type in Cork and Kerry, and their consistent axial alignments are thought to relate to astronomical observation or ceremonial significance, though exactly what was being marked or commemorated remains genuinely uncertain.

The pair at Annagannihy sits on the northeastern side of the Laney River valley in Mid Cork. They were catalogued by Seán Ó Nualláin in 1988 as part of a wider survey of stone pairs and rows across Munster, a body of work that brought systematic attention to what had often been dismissed as isolated or unremarkable field monuments. Stone pairs as a class tend to be modest in scale, which may partly explain why they have attracted less popular interest than stone circles or dolmens, even where they survive in reasonable condition. The Annagannihy examples are set in pasture, which is typical; many of these monuments have endured for millennia simply because they occupied agricultural land that was never built upon or extensively quarried.