The designation "present location" in its formal name is itself quietly telling: it signals that the object has been moved, that wherever it now sits is not where it began. Fonts of this kind, typically carved from sandstone or limestone, were once fixed features of early medieval or post-medieval churches, and their displacement, whether through land clearance, building collapse, or deliberate relocation, is a common enough story in the Irish countryside.

Kildalton as a place-name carries ecclesiastical weight. The element "dalta" in Irish suggests a fostered or beloved person, often used in association with a saint's disciple, and parishes bearing the name tend to cluster around early Christian foundations. County Kilkenny was a particularly active centre of church building and reform from the twelfth century onwards, and carved stonework, fonts included, survives in considerable quantity across the county, sometimes in situ, sometimes propped against a field wall or incorporated into a later farmyard. Beyond these general patterns, the specific history of this font, its age, its original church, the style of its carving, and the circumstances of its movement, remains undocumented in any publicly available form at present.