One of its arms is broken, which lends it an air of quiet incompleteness, and on both faces the intersection of the arms carries an incised cross set within a circle roughly forty-six centimetres across. That ringed cross motif links it to the broader tradition of Irish high crosses, upright monumental stone crosses that were produced from the early medieval period onwards, often decorated with scriptural carvings or abstract patterns, and typically associated with monastic sites or significant ecclesiastical boundaries.

The cross at Ballinatray sits about a kilometre from the sea-shore, overlooking the Owenavorragh as it runs west to east roughly seventy metres to the north. Its precise origins are not entirely straightforward to pin down, though it has attracted the attention of scholars across several decades: Joseph Ranson wrote about it in 1948, Seán de Val in 1970, and Peter Harbison included it in his comprehensive 1992 catalogue of Irish high crosses. The shale construction is notable, since most surviving high crosses are cut from harder stone, and shale's relative fragility may partly account for the damaged arm.

The cross is accessible via a path through the wood leading from a car park to the east, and a stone patio with benches has been laid out around it, making this a site that has been deliberately prepared for visitors. The wooded setting means light falls across the carved faces in ways that shift through the day, and the incised decoration at the crossing is worth examining on both sides.