At 3.5 metres high and 2.7 metres wide, it rises in three distinct tiers from an altar-tomb base to an elaborately inscribed entablature, and the stone it is carved from is no ordinary limestone. The monument is composed of fossiliferous limestone, meaning that the rock itself contains the preserved remains of ancient marine creatures, lending an unexpected geological dimension to what is already a remarkable piece of funerary sculpture.

The monument commemorates Sir Richard Shee, who died in 1608, and it is a confident example of Renaissance funerary design of a kind that was fashionable among prosperous Irish families of the period. The lowest tier is arranged in the manner of an altar-tomb, its front and side panels carved with the twelve apostles set within pointed arches, each figure separated by a slender column. Above this, the middle storey forms a triple-arched half-tester, a canopy structure supported on plain Tuscan columns, with the spandrels between the arches carrying shields bearing the Shee family escutcheons in false-relief. The uppermost section, the entablature, is the most architecturally busy: four fluted Ionic pilasters frame three inscribed panels carrying a Latin text in black-letter script that translates roughly as proclaiming these to be the distinguished insignia of Richard Shee, gilded knight, noble and honourable. A carved frieze above this contains three niches, each sheltering a female figure in relief. Scholars have suggested these represent Faith, Hope, and Charity, though the plaques that would originally have named them were likely painted rather than carved, and that paint is long gone. There is also a possibility that the monument was once taller; comparable tombs in the same church are crowned by cartouches, and the present topmost storey may not be the original summit. The engravings of beasts and foliage behind the middle-tier columns were probably painted too, which means what survives today is a quieter, more monochrome version of what Sir Richard Shee's family once commissioned. The monument suffered serious vandalism in the late 1990s but was restored in 2014, and it can now be seen in something close to its intended form.