The inscription is read as:DROSTEN:IPEUORET[E]TTFORCUSThomas Owen Clancy has interpreted the text as Goidelic, giving Drosten, i ré Uoret ett Forcus (Drosten, in the time of Uoret, and Forcus).

One is as a monument to a noble or ecclesiastic called Drosten, a common Pictish name related to Tristan, who died in the reign of Uoret and Fergus.

The final possibility noted by Clancy is that Drosten and Fergus had the stone made.

Clancy believes the stone should be dated to the reign of the Pictish king Uurad (i.e. Uoret) (839–842), again, an unusual feature in that Pictish stones can rarely be so precisely dated.

Guto Rhys hypothesized that UORET may be a personal name, or a Pictish form of the Old Welsh noun guoret, meaning "protection".