What looks like a free-standing cross began life as something else entirely: a flat grave-slab, lying horizontal, carved with a ringed cross. At some point in the distant past, someone decided to repurpose it, cutting the stone down and reshaping it so that it could stand upright. The consequence of that conversion is still visible today. The lower portions of the original ringed cross, the circular element that would have framed the intersection of the arms, were simply removed when the cross arms themselves were cut. The ghost of the earlier design survives only in the upper half.

The stone was first recorded by Austin Cooper in 1780, though its origins reach back considerably further. Scholar Ó hÉailidhe, writing in 1973, placed it within his group B grave-slabs, a category defined by crosses featuring double raised rings, and dated this group to the 9th century. In its original form the slab measured 1.61 metres long; the standing cross that remains today is just 0.85 metres high and approximately 0.65 metres wide, a significant reduction that makes plain how much material was removed. The decoration, worked in low relief on the north-east face of the stone, includes indistinct reliefs near the top and paired grooved arcs sweeping downward from the centre of the cross toward the base of the arms, effectively the upper half of what was once a complete ringed cross. The stone sits just south-south-east of a holed stone, another early medieval survival, and to the east-south-east of the medieval church site with which it was originally associated.

The graveyard is accessible in Rathcoole village, and the cross is not difficult to locate once inside; look for the holed stone nearby as a useful landmark. The views southward and westward toward the Dublin mountains foothills are open and considerable, though buildings to the north and east close things in somewhat. The decoration on the north-east face is in low relief and can be difficult to read in flat light, so a visit in raking morning or evening light may help bring out the carved arcs. For those unable to visit in person, a three-dimensional model of the stone is available online at skfb.ly/oIqrI.