What is visible above the surface amounts to just 34 centimetres of height, with a width of 35.5 centimetres and a thickness of only 4 centimetres. It is easy to walk past without a second glance, and that is precisely what makes it worth pausing over.

When Paddy Healy recorded the cross in 1972 as part of a survey of ancient monuments at Glendalough for the Office of Public Works, he illustrated a noticeably taller shaft than is visible today. His drawing also captured the base of the cross, which is now concealed beneath the surface. Whether the ground level has risen around it over the intervening decades, or the cross has simply settled further into the earth, the comparison between Healy's 1972 illustration and its present state suggests that this small monument has been quietly disappearing by degrees. Reefert Church itself, the ruined early medieval structure at the centre of the graveyard, is one of several ecclesiastical remains clustered in the Glendalough valley, a monastic landscape associated with St Kevin and founded in the sixth century. The graveyard that surrounds the church continued in use long after the medieval period, and the cross in its south-west corner sits within that long layering of burial and commemoration.

The cross is located within Reefert Graveyard, and given how little of it now projects above ground, it rewards close attention rather than a passing glance. The east and west faces of the stone are both visible, though the shaft and base recorded by Healy remain hidden below the surface.