Found in 1971 at Tobarlonane holy well in Killaspuglonane, the head is cut in relief on one face of a trapezoidal limestone block. The carving is precise and readable even now: an oval face with eyes, ears, eyebrows, nose, mouth, and a clear hairline, all rendered in a style that feels formal rather than folk.

The head almost certainly did not begin its existence at the well. Leo Swan, writing in 1987, compared it to Irish Romanesque stone heads and proposed a 12th-century date. He further argued that the block was originally a voussoir, one of the wedge-shaped stones used to form an arch, making it an architectural fragment rather than a freestanding sculpture. Romanesque architecture in Ireland during this period often incorporated carved human heads into doorways and chancel arches, so the identification is plausible. Swan's conclusion was that the stone had been lifted from the rubble of the adjacent medieval church, which sits within a large ecclesiastical enclosure nearby, and brought to the well as an object of veneration. Holy wells in Ireland were frequently associated with older sacred objects and structures, and the act of relocating a carved head to such a site suggests the face carried some perceived spiritual authority, regardless of its original architectural function.

The original stone is now held in the National Museum of Ireland, but a replica has been placed at Tobarlonane holy well, so the site retains something of the presence that drew attention to it in the first place.