It is barely larger than a human hand, and yet it has attracted the attention of scholars for the better part of a century.

Sheela-na-gigs are medieval stone carvings of female figures, typically depicted in an exaggerated, sexually explicit pose, found on churches and castles across Ireland and Britain. Their purpose remains genuinely contested: protective amulet, fertility symbol, moral warning, or something stranger still. The Ballyvourney example is an unusually ambiguous specimen. The figure, carved in false relief, shows a torso, head, and arms, but the hands appear to be crossed at the navel rather than pointing downward in the more familiar posture associated with the type. Edith Guest, writing in 1936, described the carving as a female figure cut into an ovoid depression, but concluded that it showed no definite features of a sheela-na-gig except the pose of the arms. That qualified assessment has followed it through the literature ever since. Jørgen Andersen, writing in 1977, read the hands differently, suggesting they pointed downward in the conventional manner, though later scholarship has questioned that interpretation. The figure appears as number 38 in Cherry's catalogue of Irish sheela-na-gigs, compiled in 1992, which at least settles its inclusion in the canon, however contested the details remain.

The carving sits on the outside face of the lintel, so it is visible from the churchyard rather than the interior. Its small scale means it rewards close attention; at a glance, it can look like little more than a worn depression in the stone.