A 36-year-old woman presented to our hospital with a short history of intermittent headaches. An MRI of the brain revealed a left temporal intracerebral cystic lesion with rim enhancement. Histopathology showed a malignant tumour with features of rhabdoid differentiation. Immunohistochemistry revealed that vimentin, epithelial membrane antigen and S-100 were positive, and that glial fibrillary acidic protein and the chromosome deletion 1p/19q were negative. The patient was diagnosed as having an intracerebral cystic rhabdoid meningioma. She was treated with surgery and post-operative radiotherapy. Cystic intracerebral rhabdoid meningiomas are rare. We discuss the clinical picture of this patient with reference to the published literature on this uncommon diagnosis.