It is not large, barely reaching 1.1 metres in height, and it does not announce itself with elaborate carving or inscription. What makes it quietly odd is its construction: the cross is cut from mica schist, a metamorphic rock with a characteristically flaky, glittering surface, and its proportions follow an unusual logic. The arms are short and flare outward with a convex curve. The shaft widens as it descends. Where the arms meet the shaft, small flanges, thin projecting ridges about two centimetres thick, fill the angles on each side. The effect is structural and almost deliberate, as though the maker was solving a problem in stone rather than simply reproducing a familiar form.

The cross was documented in detail by Patrick Healy in a 1972 survey of ancient monuments at Glendalough carried out for the Office of Public Works. Healy measured the cross at 1.1 metres high, 0.35 metres wide, and just 0.07 metres thick, and noted the plain disc at the centre of the head, an unadorned circle where other crosses might carry a boss or a carved motif. Sevenchurches is the older, informal name for the Glendalough monastic complex, referring to the cluster of early medieval ecclesiastical buildings associated with St Kevin, who founded the settlement in the sixth century. St Kevin's Church itself, sometimes called St Kevin's Kitchen on account of its distinctive Romanesque belfry, is one of the more recognisable structures on the site. The cross standing outside its north wall receives considerably less attention than the building beside it, which is perhaps why Healy's description, careful as it is, remained unpublished in an internal report for decades.