The ring-headed cross at its centre, a form in which a circle intersects the arms of the cross, is common enough in early Irish stonework. What sets this slab apart are the two objects flanking it: the ropes used to bind Christ to the pillar, and a ladder, both instruments associated with the Passion. These are called Arma Christi, the symbolic instruments of the Crucifixion, and their appearance on a graveslab suggests the stone was made for someone of particular religious standing or means. The slab measures 44 inches long and 14 inches across at the base, modest dimensions that make the detail of its carving all the more deliberate.

According to a 1975 report in the Irish Times, the slab is believed to have originated not at Ballyburly church itself but at the nearby Coolcor monastic site, suggesting it was moved at some point before being set into the church wall. Coolcor would have been an early ecclesiastical foundation, and the transfer of significant stonework between religious sites, whether for safekeeping, reuse, or prestige, was not unusual across medieval Ireland. The researcher Hickey, writing in 1974, recorded and described the decoration in detail. The slab no longer stands in Co. Offaly at all: it has been removed to the National Museum of Ireland, along with an armorial plaque and a wall monument from the same church, leaving the site itself without these three pieces of its material history.