The granite cross at Glendalough's Sevenchurches, standing just over three and a third metres tall beside the east wall of the enclosure surrounding the Priest's House, has the ring but not the hole. The stone was carved to suggest the form without being cut all the way through, leaving the ring slightly sunk on each face but solid. It is a subtle distinction, easy to miss, but it sets this cross apart from the more familiar type.

Writing in 1950, the architectural historian Harold Leask measured and described the cross in careful detail, noting how the shaft widens as it approaches the base, tapering from about twenty-seven centimetres thick at the top to thirty centimetres at the foot, while the shaft itself broadens from forty-three centimetres to fifty-five centimetres over the lowest half-metre or so. How deep the stone is set into the wall remains unknown. What Leask found most telling was its position, almost exactly central in the east wall of the ancient cemetery, which led him to conclude it functioned as either a sermon cross or a boundary marker. A sermon cross was a focal point for outdoor preaching and assembly, distinct from the decorated high crosses that served more as monuments or scripture-in-stone. A boundary cross defined sacred from secular space. The two functions were not mutually exclusive, and at a monastic site as layered and long-occupied as Glendalough, the cross may have served both purposes at different points in its history.

The cross stands within the main monastic complex at Glendalough, south of the cathedral, within the walled enclosure around the Priest's House. Because the site is managed as a national monument, the area is accessible to visitors, and the cross is visible in situ. It rewards a closer look, particularly from the side, where the slightly recessed but unbroken ring becomes apparent against the flat granite face.