It is easy to overlook, and that, in a quiet way, is precisely what makes it worth noting. Most medieval grave markers carry at least the ghost of an inscription, a cross, a foliate design, some trace of the person they were meant to commemorate. This one carries nothing. No letters, no symbols, no decorative intention of any kind.

The slab measures just 41 centimetres in length and 53 centimetres wide, with a chamfer, a bevelled or angled edge cut along both sides, running to about nine centimetres. According to Maher, writing in 1997, it shows no evidence of ever having borne an inscription or design, and time has left it somewhat weathered besides. Whether it was always plain, or whether it simply lost whatever markings it once had, is not possible to say with confidence. It sits inside what was once one of the largest and most elaborate Augustinian priories in medieval Ireland, a complex founded in the late twelfth century and associated with the powerful de Burgh family. The scale of Athassel as a site throws the modesty of this small slab into some relief.