At some point it was moved, relocated to a spot on the western side of a road, a short distance from where it first stood. That kind of displacement is not uncommon with early stone crosses in Ireland, which were sometimes shifted during land clearances, road improvements, or simply out of practical convenience, but it is a reminder that the landscape around an ancient monument has rarely stayed still.

The cross is recorded as a National Monument, catalogued as part of the broader archaeological record of north Kerry. C. Toal's North Kerry Archaeological Survey, published in 1995 through Brandon in association with FÁS, documented it alongside the wider constellation of early medieval and later remains that survive across this part of the county. Kerry retains a remarkable density of such crosses and cross-slabs, many of them associated with early ecclesiastical sites or routeways, though the precise original function of the Tonaknock cross is not fully detailed in the surviving record. The original location of the cross is noted as a separate site, distinct from its present position across the road, which suggests the two points are close enough to observe together but far enough apart that the move was considered significant.