It is an ogham stone, incised with the early medieval Irish script that uses a series of notches and strokes along a central line, in this case running along the edge of the stone and across its top. What makes this particular example quietly remarkable is its journey: from a collapsed underground passage in a Kerry townland, to a Victorian exhibition hall in Dublin, and eventually to a museum case far from where it was first planted in the earth.

The stone originated in Whitefield, County Kerry, where it was found, along with at least one companion, inside a souterrain, the term for a stone-lined underground passage typically associated with early medieval settlements and used for storage or refuge. That souterrain was reputedly located on the north-west side of Baunclune House, though it never appeared on Ordnance Survey maps and has left no trace above ground. In 1853, the Macgillycuddy of the Reeks brought this stone and three others from the same findspot to the Dublin Exhibition, where they were put on public display. Three of the four eventually entered the collections of the National Museum of Ireland. This one, catalogued as NMI registration number W9, took a different path and is now held by Kerry County Museum. The inscription, deeply carved and evenly spaced, was read by the scholar R.A.S. Macalister in 1945 as ALATTO CELI BATTIGNI, though he noted that the final letter N had been incorrectly rendered as a Q by an earlier hand, an error that points to the difficulties of transcribing a script that was already ancient when these stones were first studied.