The slab, measuring about 1.41 metres in length and just 12 centimetres thick, bears a plain two-line Latin cross incised into its surface, with traces of a three-line inscription carved into the lower cantons, the rectangular spaces flanking the base of the cross shaft. Time and weathering have reduced that inscription to two legible fragments: the word ORAIT and a single letter S on the third line.

The word ORAIT is an Old Irish formula meaning "a prayer" or "pray", typically the opening of a request for intercession on behalf of a named soul. What follows that word is now the problem. George Petrie, the nineteenth-century antiquarian, read the full inscription as ORAIT AR ANMAIN SEMBLAIN, meaning "a prayer for the soul of Semblán". R.A.S. Macalister, whose monumental work on Irish ogham and early inscriptions made him a central figure in the field, read the personal name differently, transcribing it as SCANDLÁN. By the time John Waddell examined the slab in 1973, neither reading could be verified; the stone had deteriorated to the point where only that opening word and a solitary initial letter remained. This slab is one of eight cross-slabs clustered around Leaba Bhreacáin, a site whose name translates roughly as "the bed" or "grave" of Saint Breacán, suggesting a focal point of early Christian devotion, perhaps a saint's tomb or a place of pilgrimage.

The slab currently lies face down, which means the carved surface is pressed against the ground and the inscription, whatever survives of it, is hidden from view entirely. Whether that position protects what little remains or simply postpones its loss is an open question.