The stone has been painted white, its lettering picked out in black within a thin black border, and the text reads: LOCVS IN QVEM INTRAS TERRA SANCTA EST, followed by the date 1641 and an abbreviated name. Translated roughly as "the place wherein you enter is holy ground", it is a quiet, formal declaration, the kind of threshold inscription that turns an ordinary gate into something more considered. There is also a large decorative O after the word IN, an unexplained flourish that gives the stone a slightly idiosyncratic character.

The initials and abbreviated title at the foot of the inscription, R. IONES PCENT, identify one Robert Jones, who was appointed Precentor of Emly cathedral in 1628. A precentor was the cleric responsible for directing the musical and choral life of a cathedral, a role of some standing in ecclesiastical organisation. The date 1641 suggests Jones commissioned or placed the stone roughly thirteen years into his tenure, a moment that, given the upheavals of that year in Ireland, lends the inscription an unintended weight. Whether the stone was set here as a straightforward dedication or in response to the particular tensions of the time is not recorded, but the combination of that year and that phrase, a solemn assertion of sacred ground, is difficult to read as purely routine.

The plaque sits immediately east of the east gate pier along the graveyard's north wall, which means it is positioned precisely at the point of entry, exactly where the words instruct the visitor to pause and take notice.