The slab is incomplete, roughly a metre tall and just over half a metre wide, and the cross incised upon it follows a distinctive formula: three parallel lines forming the arms, a circular centre, and semi-circular terminals at each end, the whole design dividing the face of the stone into four panels. It is the kind of early medieval carving that rewards a slow look, because the geometry is precise and deliberate, even though the hand that made it worked without the benefit of raised relief.

Cross-slabs of this type are a recurring feature of early Irish ecclesiastical sites, essentially grave markers or devotional stones on which a cross was carved in shallow incision rather than sculpted in three dimensions. The Glendalough complex, known locally as Sevenchurches after the cluster of ecclesiastical remains gathered in the valley, preserves a remarkable concentration of such material. This particular slab was recorded by Harold Leask in 1950, who noted its dimensions and position, and it had earlier attracted the attention of Robert Cochrane, whose detailed architectural survey of the Glendalough remains was published as part of the Eightieth Annual Report of the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland, issued in 1925. That survey included a drawn record of the slab, placing it within a tradition of careful nineteenth and early twentieth century documentation of Irish ecclesiastical antiquities. A second cross-slab stands immediately to the right of this one, the two stones sitting quietly side by side in the same sheltered corner of the church.