The arrangement is modest almost to the point of being overlooked, yet for generations the people buried around it kept a deliberate and respectful distance. No corpse, locals insisted, should be laid too close. Families measured out their graves by the yard from this particular spot, using it as a fixed point of reference in the landscape of the dead.

The cross is associated with St Maelruan, the eighth-century founder of the monastery at Tallaght and a significant figure in the Céli Dé reform movement, which sought a stricter, more ascetic form of monastic life in early medieval Ireland. Writing in 1953, Scantlebury recorded that the saint's grave was pointed out here, marked by the base and part of the head of the plain granite cross that survives today. Handcock, writing in 1899, noted a deeply incised line on one face of the cross near the base of the shaft, a detail whose purpose remains unexplained. Whether the stone beneath it was always a millstone, or served some earlier function, is not established.

The cross is accessible within the churchyard at Tallaght, which sits in what is now a heavily urbanised part of south-west Dublin. The monument is small and plain, so it rewards a slow approach rather than a quick glance. Look for the layered construction, the cross above the pyramidal base above the rounded stone, and the incised line on the shaft that Handcock observed. For those who want to examine it more closely before or after a visit, a 3D model is available online at skfb.ly/oJtVD.