This particular example came to light not through an archaeological excavation but through routine maintenance work on a bridge parapet in Kilfountain townland, Co. Kerry. The fact that it had been built into the structure of the bridge at all suggests it had already been repurposed once before, drawn into a later piece of infrastructure by someone who either did not recognise its significance or simply needed a good flat stone.

Cross-inscribed stones are among the more widely distributed early medieval artefacts in Ireland, typically cut with simple incised crosses that range from the crudely scratched to the carefully composed. They are associated with early Christian activity, sometimes marking graves, sometimes connected to church sites or holy wells, and occasionally functioning as boundary markers. Kilfountain townland takes its name from the Irish cill, meaning church or monastic cell, and fionntan, a personal name, suggesting the area had some early ecclesiastical association. Whether this stone originated at such a site before finding its way into the bridge fabric is not known. It is now held at the Kerry County Museum in Tralee, catalogued under object number KCM 2000:2, where it can be seen removed from both its original setting and the bridge that gave it an accidental second life.