What makes it quietly remarkable is the inconsistency carved into its four sides: the north and east faces are decorated with seven round-headed arches, the south with seven pointed arches, and the west with five ogee-headed arches, those being arches with an S-curved profile that come to a point at the top, with filled spandrels between them. No single architectural logic governs the decoration; the three styles sit side by side on the same object, as though the carver were working through a repertoire rather than following a pattern.

The font is compact but substantial, measuring about 65 centimetres across and 41 centimetres in total height. Each side is chamfered along the lower edge, and the four vertical corners are also chamfered, each one ending in a broach stop, a small pyramidal termination used to resolve the transition between a diagonal chamfer and a flat surface. On the south and west faces, the columns separating the arches run down and continue onto the base chamfer, tapering to a point. The raised arch surrounds are polished smooth, while the surfaces between them are finished with punch tooling, giving the decoration a textured contrast. The circular basin, roughly 53 centimetres across and 22 centimetres deep, still has its drain hole, though it has been filled in, and three hinge remnants on the north rim indicate that a cover was once fitted. The font probably dates to the fifteenth century, and a 1989 study by Pike grouped it within an identifiable regional tradition known as the Ossory Group, suggesting that a number of similar fonts were produced in or around the medieval diocese of Ossory in this period.

Where it came from originally is not known. It may have begun its life in St Lachtain's church, a medieval foundation roughly 165 metres to the north that now serves as the Church of Ireland church in the town. Whether it was moved at the Reformation or later is unrecorded. Its current home gives no indication of that possible displacement; it sits quietly in use, doing what fonts were made for, with no particular fuss made about the three centuries of ecclesiastical architecture compressed into its sides.