Measuring just 48 centimetres in length and 25 centimetres wide, it is a modest object by any measure, yet its provenance alone gives it considerable weight. It was found within the main ecclesiastical complex on the north-eastern peak of Sceilg Mhichíl, the extraordinary island monastery off the coast of County Kerry where early Christian monks constructed a cluster of dry-stone beehive cells and oratories, clinging to the cliff face some 230 metres above the sea.

The cross itself is incomplete. Both the head and part of the lower shaft are missing, leaving only a fragment that nonetheless preserves enough detail to describe its form. It has two short rounded arms, each with a rounded angle cut beneath them, a feature that gives a sense of careful, considered carving rather than rough utility. The shaft narrows as it descends toward the break. Without its head, it is impossible to say whether it once bore a ringed form or a plain Latin profile, though the rounded treatment of the arms hints at a degree of ornamental intention. It is now in the care of the Office of Public Works at the National Monuments Depot in Killarney, held as a removed artefact rather than displayed in situ on the island from which it came.