It is not displayed inside a museum case or mounted on a plinth; it has simply been built into the wall, functioning as a kind of permanent ledge, which makes it easy to walk past without registering what it actually is.

The font is octagonal, carved from limestone, with an external diameter of 0.66 metres and a circular basin roughly half a metre across and 0.2 metres deep. One of its eight flat faces carries a date carved in relief: 1511, placing its likely origin in the early sixteenth century. The underside is finished with eight chamfered edges, suggesting a degree of craft and intention beyond purely functional stonework. There is no drainage hole in the basin, which is a detail worth noting; many fonts of this period were fitted with a plug or bore to allow the blessed water to be disposed of reverently rather than simply tipped out, so its absence here is a small puzzle. According to local tradition, the font did not begin its life at Loughanavally at all. It is said to have come originally from the medieval church site at Churchtown, some distance away, a settlement whose ecclesiastical origins would make it a plausible home for a font of this date and quality. When or why it was moved, and how it eventually came to be set into the wall of a much later building, is not recorded.

The font sits to the south of the south doorway of the church, incorporated into the wall top rather than stored or shelved, so a visitor who knows to look will find it without difficulty. The date 1511 is carved in relief on one face and remains legible.