Not a carved slab, not a freestanding monument, but a cross cut directly into the living rock of the island itself, close to the eastern flight of stone steps that pilgrims and monks once climbed, and that tourists still ascend today. It measures less than a metre in height, 0.93 metres tall and just 0.3 metres wide, with a thickness of 0.13 metres, modest in scale but deliberate in form.

The technique of cutting a cross into natural rock rather than shaping a separate stone object is a reminder that the monks of Sceilg Mhichíl worked with what the island gave them. The site, a UNESCO World Heritage Property, preserves an astonishing range of early Christian stonework, from dry-stone beehive cells and oratories to inscribed slabs and grave markers, most of it dating from a monastic community active from at least the sixth or seventh century through to the twelfth or thirteenth. This particular cross, located near the east steps, was documented in the 1996 archaeological survey of the Iveragh Peninsula compiled by A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan and published by Cork University Press, and has since been subject to further review and revision by researcher Caimin O'Brien.