The stone does not appear on Ordnance Survey six-inch maps from either 1842 or 1904, which is a curious absence for something standing 2.7 metres tall. Whether it was simply missed during surveying, or whether local conditions obscured it at the relevant moments, is unclear. What is not in doubt is its physical presence: subrectangular in cross-section, roughly 1.9 metres wide and only 0.35 metres thick, it has the flat, blade-like proportions that characterise many Irish standing stones, the broad face turned to catch the eye while the narrow edge almost disappears from certain angles.

Standing stones as a class are among the most enigmatic monuments in the Irish landscape. Erected during the Bronze Age in most instances, though some may be earlier or later, their original purposes remain debated, ranging from territorial markers to focal points for ritual activity to single grave monuments. The Rusheen stone was documented by Ruaidhrí de Valera and Seán Ó Nualláin, whose systematic survey of prehistoric standing stones across Ireland through the latter half of the twentieth century remains a foundational body of work. Their record of the Rusheen example, published in 1982, gives us the dimensions and notes the pronounced westward lean, which suggests either ground movement over millennia or that the stone was never perfectly upright to begin with.