Originally designed to lie flat as recumbent grave covers, the slabs were repurposed at some point as upright headstones, standing among the 18th and 19th century burial markers that crowd this part of the yard. The consequence of that reuse is that most of the slabs are partially sunk into the ground, concealing their lower sections and whatever decoration they once carried in full.

The stones are predominantly schist, a fine-grained metamorphic rock common to the Wicklow uplands, though four of the twenty, slabs 2, 11, 15, and 16, are of granite. Cross-slab 20, documented in detail by researcher Chris Corlett, sits 6.5 metres east of the southeast angle of Aghowle Church and appears to mark the northern edge of a grave plot, with the cross face turned south. It measures 34.5 centimetres wide and 52 centimetres long, at just 7 centimetres thick. The carved cross is of the outline type, meaning the arms are formed by incised lines rather than raised relief, and it is cusped at the intersection, where the arms meet in a small decorative concave curve. One arm is damaged, but the surviving opposite arm shows that the design stopped short of the stone's edge rather than running to the margin. The shaft breaks off at the base, suggesting the slab was originally longer before it was broken or cut down for its new purpose as a standing marker.

Visitors to Aghowle who know what to look for will find the slabs distributed mainly through the southern section of the graveyard, mingling with much later headstones. The fact that so many were turned upright means close inspection is worthwhile; the carved faces are not always immediately obvious, and the partial burial of each stone means the full extent of the original design is rarely visible above ground.