It is roughly half a metre tall and easy to miss, but once spotted it is difficult to look away. This is a sheela-na-gig, a category of medieval stone carving found across Ireland and Britain, typically depicting a female figure explicitly displaying her genitalia. Their purpose remains debated: apotropaic warnings, fertility symbols, survivals of pre-Christian belief absorbed into the fabric of Christian architecture. Whatever their origin, they ended up on churches, and this one at Ballynaclogh is among the more precisely described examples in county Tipperary.

The carving is worked in relief on a quoin, one of the dressed corner-stones used to strengthen the angle of a masonry wall. The figure has a flat-topped head, jug-shaped ears, a pointed chin, and widely spaced almond eyes; there is no clear mouth. One arm reaches up to pull at the face, likely at the ear, while the other reaches beneath a raised leg to pull at the vulva. The legs are spread, and the feet have suffered considerable spalling, meaning the stone surface has flaked away over time, leaving that part of the carving worn and indistinct. The description published by Manning in 1988 remains the most detailed account of the figure, and it is reproduced in the Archaeological Inventory of North Tipperary compiled by Jean Farrelly and Caimin O'Brien.