It would be easy to walk past without a second thought, yet this small piece of mica schist, a metamorphic rock with a faintly glittering, layered quality, is one of the quiet survivors of the early Christian monastic complex at Glendalough in County Wicklow, the area also known historically as Sevenchurches.

Patrick Healy, who catalogued the ancient monuments at Glendalough in an unpublished Office of Public Works report in 1972, recorded the slab as number 201 in his survey. His description is precise: a rectangular piece of mica schist measuring 0.7 metres by 0.42 metres and 0.08 metres thick, bearing a Latin cross, meaning a cross with a longer lower arm, carved in slight relief rather than incised or pierced. At the time Healy recorded it, the slab was housed inside the Cathedral, the largest of the monastic buildings on the valley floor. Cross-slabs of this kind are a common early medieval form across Ireland, typically serving as grave markers or devotional objects within monastic enclosures, though the precise original function of this particular example is not documented.

By 2005 the slab had been moved and was on display as part of an exhibition in the Glendalough Visitor Centre, where it can be seen alongside other carved stonework recovered from the site. Whether it will remain a permanent fixture of that display is not something the historical record settles, so it is worth checking current arrangements before making a special journey for it.