It is a tall, pointed, undressed stone, obviously a re-used standing stone from an earlier period.

The figure is incised on the rough S-E face, towards the top. It is very difficult to make out, and is one of those examples where the time of day, and the angle of the Sun affects just how visible the carving is, and how much detail can be observed. I have been unable to make out the curly hair he is reputed to have, for instance, but that may be just bad luck. The only reason he is regarded as Pictish is the equally faint "horseshoe" symbol to his right.

Unlike all the other Pictish warriors, he is naked, and carries what appears to be a Roman-style shield, not the round, or square shields depicted on other stones. He carries a long spear with a ball on the end of it. He appears not to have a sword or any other armament.

Is he a mythical character, or some ancient folk-hero that was immortalized on stone?
Or was he simply carved in the 3rd or 4th Centuries CE?
A more specifically Pictish symbol or symbols would help tie him in more definitely into the Pictish corpus.
Personally, I find his inclusion dubious.

The Collessie man's shield has been compared to those of the barbarians' being trampled by a triumphant Roman cavalry man, on the Bridgeness slab, which was obviously carved as a sort of propaganda poster. Although the barbarians are depicted as being naked too, their shields are about a third the size of his. This stone, found on the Antonine Wall is distinctly Roman, and if there was any propaganda value in showing the enemy being defeated despite having huge shields, I'm sure they would have been portrayed thus. But they don't.

Compare it, too, with the Logierait shield, which is square and small . The Fowlis Wester footmen have small square shields, as do three of the Birsay men. On the Hilton of Cadboll Stone, two of the riders have the more common round shields (targes about 18" [45cms] in diameter).

The overwhelmingly more usual shield is the targe, sometimes plain, sometimes depicted with a boss. Aberlemno 2 shows one set of warriors with plain round shields and the others have dished round shields with a boss. On the Edderton Stone, the same two types are clearly represented.