That rock is Sceilg Mhichíl, the steep pyramidal island off the Kerry coast where monks built a community of beehive cells and oratories beginning in the early medieval period, and the cross has travelled a considerable distance, in every sense, from its original place.

On Sceilg Mhichíl, the cross stood on a leacht at the inner end of the entrance passage leading to the main terrace. A leacht is a low, flat-topped cairn or stone platform, typically associated with prayer or commemoration in early Irish monastic contexts, and positioning a cross at such a point would have marked the transition from the approach route into the heart of the monastic enclosure. This was a liminal spot, the moment of arrival after the long climb up the rock's stone steps. The cross is now in the care of the Office of Public Works, held at the National Monuments Depot in Killarney, Co. Kerry, the address in the county's administrative records registered at Carrigafreaghane rather than at the island itself.