It holds no water outlet, meaning whatever liquid was placed in its basin had no means of draining away. Its raised internal rim, just under a centimetre proud of the outer edge, suggests careful intention, yet when it was described in the early twentieth century the piece was noted as looking rough and unfinished. Whether that roughness reflects an abandoned carving project, a deliberate aesthetic, or simply centuries of weathering is not clear from what survives.

The font is a circular piece of granite, just over eighty centimetres wide and roughly forty centimetres tall, placed centrally about half a metre inside the east wall of the abbey ruins. Baltinglass Abbey was a Cistercian foundation in County Wicklow, and fonts of this kind, used for holding holy water or for baptismal rites, were common fixtures in medieval ecclesiastical buildings. A description published between 1906 and 1908 by Fitzgerald already remarked on its unpolished appearance, suggesting the object had looked that way for some time even then. The basin itself narrows slightly towards the base, lending the piece a gentle taper, and the interior dimensions are modest enough that this was never a large ceremonial vessel.