The slab bears a ringed interlace cross, a style in which the arms of the cross are enclosed within a circle, common in Irish early Christian and medieval stonework, alongside an inscription reading OROIT DO FACHTAIN. The phrase is Old Irish for "a prayer for Fachtain", a formula found on early medieval memorial stones across Ireland, asking those who pass and read to offer up a prayer for the named soul. It is a small, direct request, stripped of ornament, and the name Fachtain is the only personal detail that survives.

The slab originated at Bahana, in County Wicklow, at the site of a medieval church known as Kilcommon, and was recorded in the late nineteenth century by Braybrook between 1879 and 1881. It is one of two medieval graveslabs known from the Kilcommon church site, suggesting that at least something of the burial ground's material culture was documented before the stones were dispersed or removed. The transfer of the slab to the National Museum of Ireland preserved it from the weathering and loss that claimed many comparable monuments left in situ, though it also severed the object from the landscape and community that gave it meaning.