What makes it quietly remarkable is both the inscription itself and the method of its making: the letters were cut by pocking, a technique in which the surface of the stone is struck repeatedly with a pointed tool to produce deeply incised marks rather than smoothly chiselled lines. The text reads OR DO MAELBRENDAIN, an Old Irish formula meaning roughly "a prayer for Maelbrendan", a personal name that incorporates the name of Brendan, one of the most venerated saints in the Irish tradition.

The slab originally rested in the graveyard surrounding what is known as Rosshill Abbey, a site associated with St Brendan of Clonfert, the sixth-century figure credited with founding the great monastery at Clonfert and, in legend, with an extraordinary Atlantic voyage. The ecclesiastical enclosure at Rosshill represents the kind of early monastic complex, typically defined by a circular or roughly oval boundary, that served as the spiritual and physical centre of early Irish communities. The name Maelbrendan, meaning "devotee of Brendan", suggests a personal connection to that cult, and the inscribed slab almost certainly marked the grave of someone who bore that name in honour of the local patron saint. The inscription was recorded by Higgins in 1987, who noted that despite its depth, it occupies only a small portion of the end of the slab, giving the object an almost casual quality, as though the carver worked quickly in a small remaining space.

The slab is no longer at Rosshill. It has been moved to the church at An Fhairche, also known as Clonbur, a village a short distance away. Anyone hoping to see it should look for it at that location rather than at the abbey site.