It is not especially large, measuring around 56 centimetres high by 52 wide, but it is dense with meaning: a heater-shaped shield, so called for its resemblance to the flat-iron shields used in medieval tournaments, divided vertically down the centre and packed with the symbols of two distinct families joined, apparently, by alliance or marriage.

The plaque dates to the sixteenth century and commemorates a union between the Crosbie and Browne families, both of whom held influence in Kerry during that period. The left half of the shield carries the Crosbie arms, a lion rampant accompanied by two left hands in chief, those disembodied hands being a motif associated with several Munster families of the era. The right half bears the Browne arms, three martlets (a heraldic bird resembling a swift, shown without feet) arranged vertically, with a lion passant-guardant on the side panels known as flaunches. Surrounding the shield is mantling, the decorative drapery that in heraldry originally represented the cloth worn over a knight's helmet to absorb heat. Above it sits a crest featuring a circle pierced by three swords, a rosette, and what appears to be a winged wolf, though the carving at that point is ambiguous enough that it was noted tentatively even by earlier scholars. Beneath everything, in Gothic lettering, runs the Latin phrase INDIGNANTE INVIDIA FLOREBIT IUSTUS, which translates roughly as "the just man shall flourish despite the envy of his detractors", a motto with a quietly combative edge that suited the political climate of sixteenth-century Munster rather well.