It survived, somewhat accidentally, because a stonemason noticed something in the lines and set it aside rather than leaving it where it lay.

The fragment came to light in 1983 when Dublin County Council undertook conservation works at Kilgobbin church and graveyard. It was the stonemason, Mr William Long, who spotted the carved markings on the piece as it lay in the graveyard and preserved it for examination. Measuring just 33cm by 20cm and 13cm thick, the granite slab was subsequently identified by scholar Ó hÉailidhe, writing in 1984, as belonging to the Rathdown group of slabs, a regional collection of Early Christian grave markers found across south County Dublin and north County Wicklow. The cup-mark and concentric circles it bears are among the most common motifs of that group, a decorative language whose precise meaning remains a matter of ongoing discussion among archaeologists. The fragment is now fixed to the southern face of the north wall of Kilgobbin church, positioned above another carved stone at the same site, a saltire cross-slab, making this a small but concentrated point of early medieval stonework.

Kilgobbin church and graveyard lie in the foothills south of Dublin city, and the site remains accessible to visitors. The graveslab fragment is mounted on the church wall rather than lying loose, so it is straightforward to locate once you are inside the ruin. The carving is shallow and the stone is granite, so light conditions matter; overcast days can actually help the marks read more clearly than direct sunlight, which can flatten the relief. For those unable to visit in person, a three-dimensional digital model of the graveslab has been made available online at skfb.ly/oEFts, which allows the carved surface to be examined in detail from any angle.