Its head is damaged, its proportions modest, and it would be easy to walk past without a second glance. What makes it worth pausing over is the way it carries two distinct faces: a ringed cross carved in raised relief on the west side, and a plain Latin cross on the east. The ringed cross, sometimes called a Celtic cross, frames the intersection of its arms within a circle, a form that appears throughout early medieval Ireland. The Latin cross on the opposite face is simpler, the upright longer than the arms, with no enclosing ring. The same stone, two different expressions of Christian visual tradition.

The cross was noted by Ball in 1899 and later recorded by P. Healy in a 1974 survey of archaeological monuments and sites in County Dublin, produced for An Foras Forbartha Teoranta. Its recorded dimensions are modest: 0.78 metres in height, a maximum width of 0.57 metres, and a thickness ranging from 0.18 to 0.25 metres. The graveyard at St. John's sits to the north of the medieval church fragment with which it is associated, and the cross occupies the south-east quadrant of that burial ground. Beyond its physical description, the documentary record is sparse. Its precise date is unconfirmed, and the circumstances of its carving or placement are not recorded in the available sources.

St. John's graveyard is in Clondalkin village, which despite being absorbed into the western suburbs of Dublin retains a cluster of early medieval remains, including the well-known round tower nearby. The graveyard itself is accessible, though visitors should expect an active burial ground rather than a managed heritage site. The cross stands close to the medieval church fragment, so orienting yourself to that ruin first makes it easier to locate. Once found, it is worth circling slowly to compare the two carved faces, since the quality of the relief and the condition of the stone read differently depending on the light. A 3D model of the cross is available online at skfb.ly/oJ9EF, which allows a closer examination of the carving than the physical setting always permits.