Cut into its surface is a fleur-de-lys cross with a double-line incised shaft, the kind of detail that takes time and skill to produce, and which signals that whoever commissioned this stone expected it to be noticed. One of its lower corners has since broken away, and the slab now sits slightly off-centre, tilted by centuries of ground movement, but the carving remains legible enough to reward a careful look.

The slab is associated with the Hospital of Aney, also recorded as the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, which places it within the orbit of the Knights Hospitaller, a military and religious order that operated hospitals and priories across medieval Europe and Ireland. The Hospitallers were responsible for a network of properties that combined care for pilgrims and the sick with considerable landed wealth, and their houses often left behind stonework of some ambition. This graveslab, catalogued as LI032-147002-, is not alone. A second medieval graveslab, plain and undecorated, lies a few metres to the east, and immediately to the south a large rectangular stone appears to be the remnant of a third slab, though its date remains uncertain. Together, they suggest a burial ground that once served a community of some standing.

The site sits within the remains of the church itself, so orientation is relatively straightforward once you have located the ruin. The decorated slab is the one to seek out first, positioned off-centre to the west and close to the north wall. It is worth crouching down to examine the incised lines at an angle, particularly in low, raking light, which brings out the shallow carving far more clearly than direct overhead sun will. The plain slab to the east is easy to overlook precisely because it lacks ornament, but its proximity to the decorated stone makes it worth pausing over. Wet weather, paradoxically, can help here, as moisture tends to darken the stone surface and make incised lines more visible against their background.