That fragment, the remnant of the phrase 'HIC JACET', meaning 'Here lies', is all that remains legible of an inscription carved in Lombardic script, the rounded, ornamental lettering commonly used on medieval funerary monuments across Europe. The rest of the text has worn away entirely, and the name of whoever lies beneath has been lost for centuries.

The slab itself is one of a large collection of medieval graveslabs recovered from Kells Priory, a house of Augustinian canons in County Kilkenny. Augustinian canons were communities of priests living under the Rule of St Augustine, and their priories were often significant centres of patronage and burial for local nobility and clergy. This particular slab is a tapering form, 1.75 metres long and narrowing from roughly 0.545 metres at the top to 0.365 metres at the base, with all sides chamfered, that is, cut at an angle rather than left square. It has been broken horizontally into four pieces. Despite that damage, its carved decoration survives in reasonable clarity: a four-armed cross-head with fleur-de-lis terminals, and an oval knop, a small rounded boss, placed immediately below the cross-head where the shaft begins. A matching fleur-de-lis terminal and knop appear again at the base of the shaft, giving the composition a deliberate symmetry. The carving is in low false-relief, meaning the design appears raised but is achieved by cutting away the background rather than building up the surface. On stylistic grounds, the slab has been dated to the 13th or 14th century, placing it within the active life of the priory. It was described and catalogued as part of a broader study of the medieval funerary monuments at Kells Priory by Higgins in 2007, which documented a substantial number of similar slabs found across the site.