The object is a dressed rectangular block, measuring 0.41 metres by 0.26 metres by 0.25 metres, with a broad D-shaped projection on one end. Into that projection, a carver worked a human face using deep grooves to mark the eyes, nose, and mouth. It is a spare, almost severe piece of work, with no decorative flourish beyond the face itself.

The head was originally cut into the top corner stone where the south wall met the east gable of a church at Malin Head in County Donegal, a building that still stands on the shore at the base of a cliff on the northern side of the headland. Corner stones carrying carved faces are an occasional feature of early Irish ecclesiastical architecture, placed at structurally significant points where walls meet. The Donegal Annual of 1953 to 1954 recorded the piece and its original position, and it was subsequently removed to the National Museum of Ireland, where it was registered under the number 1972:5. The notes were compiled by Paul Walsh.

The stone is held by the National Museum of Ireland, and anyone wishing to see it would need to enquire directly with the museum about its current display or storage status, as not all collection items are on permanent public view. The church it came from, recorded under the Sites and Monuments Record reference DG002-002001, remains at Malin Head and is visible on the shoreline beneath the cliffs. For anyone travelling to the headland, which sits at the very tip of the Inishowen Peninsula, the building itself is worth locating, even if the carved face that once marked its corner is no longer in place.