Shale is an unusual material for a high cross; most surviving examples from early medieval Ireland are carved in sandstone or granite, both of which weather more predictably. This one, standing approximately 1.90 metres tall with a span of 69 centimetres across the arms, has endured nonetheless, and its carved surface retains enough detail to reward close attention.

The cross belongs to the ringed tradition, meaning its arms are connected by a circular frame, a form associated with Irish monasticism from roughly the eighth century onwards. What distinguishes this example is that the ring is imperforate, a solid disc rather than the open-armed wheel seen on more celebrated examples elsewhere. At the centre of that disc, a cross with expanding terminals sits within a circle, and the expanded terminals themselves carry knots of interlace, a decorative knotwork pattern also found in the spaces between the arms. Robert Cochrane recorded and drew the cross for a report published in 1925, drawing on fieldwork conducted for the Commissioners of Public Works, which places documentary attention on this cross at least as far back as the early twentieth century. Peter Harbison, writing in 1992, provided the detailed description from which most of what is known about the carving's dimensions and ornament is drawn.

Reefert church, beside which the cross stands, is one of several early ecclesiastical remains within the Glendalough monastic complex in County Wicklow. The cross sits near the southern boundary wall of the associated graveyard, slightly apart from the church itself. The interlace ornament, particularly its placement in the terminals as well as between the arms, is worth examining carefully if the light is favourable, as the shallow relief carving in shale can be difficult to read in flat or overcast conditions.