It is only a metre long, slightly tapered from top to base, with chamfered edges, and its upper face carries a carefully carved equal-armed cross set within a sunken circular field. The cross terminals are bifid, meaning each arm splits into two points, and on either side of the shaft a plain rectangular panel rises to a matching bifid top. It is a quietly precise piece of medieval stonework, the kind of thing easy to walk past without quite registering what you are looking at.

The church here was dedicated to St. Farannan, an early Irish saint who followed the practice of peregrinatio, voluntary exile from one's homeland as a form of spiritual discipline. He left Ireland for the Continent and died in 982 at a place called Valcoidon, later known as Waser on the Meuse. That a Tipperary parish church should carry the name of a saint who ended his days on a Belgian river is one of those small geographical surprises that early medieval Irish monasticism scattered across Europe. The graveslab itself is considerably later than Farannan; on the basis of comparative stylistic evidence, it has been assigned a thirteenth or fourteenth century date, placing it in the heart of the medieval period long after the saint's death and the likely founding of the original church.

The slab is set within the graveyard rather than inside the church building, which means it is generally accessible to anyone visiting the site. The carving on the upper portion rewards a close look, particularly the bifid terminals of the cross, where the splitting of each arm gives the design a formal elegance that distinguishes it from plainer medieval slabs of the same period.