According to a 1909 account by Bagwell, poor people would approach the cross on their knees, as an act of penance or devotion. The ground here was formerly wet and boggy rather than open water, which makes that practice easier to imagine, and harder to dismiss as merely symbolic.

The cross itself is an imperforate ring-headed cross, meaning the ring connecting the arms is solid stone rather than pierced through, a form found across early Christian Ireland. It stands 1.15 metres tall and is composed of sandstone with quartz pebble inclusions. The south-west face is the better preserved of the two, though neither shows any clearly legible carving. The north-east face, 0.53 metres wide, has an undulating surface that may be the ghost of decoration worn almost entirely away. The cross sits within a cluster of related features, a church and a holy well, all dedicated to St. Patrick, the combination of which suggests a site of some local devotional importance over a considerable period. Holy wells in Ireland were frequently focal points for patterns, the traditional gatherings involving circumambulation, prayer, and sometimes physical hardship, of which approaching a sacred object on one's knees would be a recognisable part.