Measuring just under three-quarters of a metre tall and nearly half a metre wide, it is not a large object, but the decoration cut into its face is precise and considered: a Maltese cross rendered in false relief, meaning the cross form is raised slightly from the background by cutting away the surrounding stone rather than carving the cross itself outward, set within a circle roughly a third of a metre across. At the centre of the cross sits a boss, a small rounded protrusion, with a tiny cup-shaped hollow at its heart. It is the kind of detail that repays a close look.

Cross-slabs of this type are found at early ecclesiastical sites across Ireland, marking the presence of a Christian community that expressed its faith through the carved stone rather than the elaborate free-standing high crosses more commonly associated with the early medieval church. The Romanesque church at Clone, itself a structure of considerable age, provides the architectural context: Romanesque building in Ireland generally dates to the twelfth century, characterised by rounded arches and decorative stonework influenced by continental European styles. The slab and a sundial from the same site were removed in 2018, transferred to the Office of Public Works depot at Kilkenny while repair work on the church was being carried out. Both pieces are classified as National Monuments in state ownership, designated under Monument No. 665.

Because the cross-slab had been moved to Kilkenny for safekeeping during the church's repair, anyone intending to see it at Clone should establish in advance whether it has since been returned to the graveyard. The condition of access to the site, and the presence or absence of the stone itself, may well have changed since 2018.