It carries no carving, no inscription, no knotwork. It is simply an irregular Latin cross cut from mica-schist, a locally common metamorphic rock with a faintly glittering surface, measuring just under a metre tall and a little over half a metre wide. In a landscape famous for ornate high crosses and carefully preserved monastic remains, this one commands attention precisely through its plainness.

The cross was noted and drawn by Patrick Healy in an unpublished Office of Public Works survey from 1972, which catalogued ancient monuments at Glendalough. His record gives the dimensions and identifies the stone type, but offers little else by way of origin or date. The cairn into which it is set lies to the south-east of a stone enclosure nearby, one that may itself be of relatively modern construction rather than early medieval origin. Reefert Church, which gives the location its broader context, is a small Romanesque ruin within the Glendalough monastic complex; its name is thought to derive from the Irish for "royal burial place", suggesting the ground here carried significance long before any surviving structure was raised. Whether this cross marks a grave, a boundary, or something else entirely is not recorded.

The cross is a National Monument in state ownership, so the site is protected. Visitors to Glendalough who follow the paths beyond the main monastic enclosure towards the Upper Lake will find themselves in the quieter southern reaches of the valley where Reefert Church stands. The cairn and cross are close by, easy to miss if you are not specifically looking for an unadorned slab of dark stone set low against the hillside.