What the eye struggles to pick out is an early medieval composition of considerable intricacy: a cross of arcs set within a circle outlined by twin grooves, with a cross-like extension dropping below the circle and expanding at its base into a pelta motif, the term used for a crescent-shaped decorative element, with half-turn spirals curling outward. The horizontal arms carry twin strands that bifurcate into similar pelta-like terminals. The carving fills almost the entire face of the slab, suggesting it was designed to be seen from a distance, even if time has since worked against that intention.

The slab is one of two that once stood together on the same circular platform. Its companion, which originally occupied the southern half of the platform, was removed and is now held in the National Museum of Ireland, leaving this stone as the sole survivor in situ. The French art historian Françoise Henry, who did much to document early Irish Christian art, excavated the ground immediately around the slab in 1938 and found a concentration of animal bones at its base, a detail that raises questions about the platform's original function without quite answering them. Henry published the carving in 1945, and her plate remains one of the clearest records of what the design looked like before weathering advanced further. The slab is a designated National Monument in state ownership.