The slab is not standing, not dramatic, and not immediately legible; it requires a moment of attention before the design begins to resolve itself out of the weathered surface.

Inis Cealtra, a small island in Lough Derg on the Shannon, holds one of the more concentrated assemblages of early medieval ecclesiastical remains in Ireland, and this cross-slab is one piece of that larger puzzle. The scholar R. A. S. Macalister recorded it in 1916 and 1917, classifying it as twelfth-century in type. At just over two metres in length and roughly 0.69 metres wide, tapering slightly toward one end, the slab is substantial without being monumental. The carved Latin cross, a form characterised by its longer vertical arm, is rendered in double lines with hollowed angles, a decorative technique that gives the intersection of the arms a slightly recessed, almost jewelled quality. Beyond the cross itself, the base of the stone and the surrounding background are filled with an ornament of squares and crosses, though much of this surface detail has been lost to wear. A drawing by de Paor preserves what the eye can no longer easily follow in the stone itself.