But the carving on its face connects this modest stone to one of Ireland's most dramatic early Christian sites. Known as Stone J, it bears what is probably the stem of a large expansional cross, a form of cross decoration whose closest parallel is found on the famous cross at Skellig Michael, the remote island monastery off the tip of the Iveragh Peninsula. That comparison, first drawn by the archaeologist Liam de Paor in 1958, quietly elevates a broken fragment into something with much wider significance.

The slab was discovered within structure E at An Riasc, a monastic settlement and burial ground known in Irish as An Cheallnúach or Calluragh burial ground, situated roughly 1.25 kilometres east of Ballyferriter on the Dingle Peninsula. The site sits at approximately the highest point in its townland, with views northward across Smerwick Harbour. An expansional cross, to explain the term, is one whose arms flare or broaden towards the tips, a distinctive early medieval design that appears across Irish and insular Christian stonework. Stone J has since been re-erected on the site, returning it to something like its original upright position after it was found lying within the ruins of the enclosure. The slab is catalogued as part of a wider group of cross-inscribed pillars and slabs recorded at An Riasc, itself a site with considerable archaeological complexity.