The tall assembly known by that name incorporates a high cross head that has its own separate identity, its own age, and its own carved programme, now doing quiet duty as part of a composite monument. The surviving element is the ringed head of a sandstone high cross, a little over a metre tall and slightly wider than it is high, dating to the mid-twelfth century. A ringed high cross is the distinctly Irish form in which a circular ring connects the arms, both reinforcing the structure and framing the carvings within it.

The carving on this head is unusually rich for what is, in physical terms, a fragment. On one face, Christ is shown crucified in high relief, a scene that became increasingly central to Irish high cross iconography from the ninth century onward. On the other face, a bishop stands flanked by two pairs of smaller figures, a hierarchical arrangement that likely reflects the ecclesiastical importance of Tuam, which was elevated to an archbishopric in 1152, the very period to which this cross is dated. Further figures appear at the ends of the arms, while the undersides of the arms and ring carry interlace and a chequer pattern, geometric ornament that contrasts with, and frames, the figural work. A short rectangular shaft and a small projecting tenon at the crown survive alongside the head, indicating how it would once have been assembled and seated.

The cross head now forms part of the Market Cross in Tuam town, where it has been incorporated into a later composite structure. Visitors examining it closely should look for the transition between the medieval head and the elements around it, and pay attention to the undersides of the arms, where the interlace decoration is easy to miss from a distance.