The panel, two metres long and just over half a metre high, is not where it was made to be. It began life as the side of a chest tomb, the type of raised, box-shaped funerary monument common in late medieval Irish ecclesiastical settings, and its carved decoration still speaks to that origin: a blind ogee-headed panel, a form of pointed decorative arch typical of Gothic stonework, and a lierne or star-vaulting pattern, a style of interlocking ribbed design more usually seen overhead in medieval church ceilings than worked flat into the side of a tomb.

The panel is thought to date from the 16th century and was originally located in Owney Abbey, a monastic site some distance from where it now rests. How it came to be removed from the abbey and brought to Cappercullen Glen is not fully recorded, but its current setting adds another layer of historical complexity. The stone shelter into which the panel is incorporated was built by the Belgian monks of Glenstal Abbey, and it covers a mass-rock, a flat or prominent stone used as an improvised altar during the Penal era, when Catholic worship was prohibited and priests celebrated Mass outdoors in remote locations. Cappercullen Castle lies around 465 metres to the south-west of the site.

The site sits in woodland beside a stream, and the natural boundary of the glen gives it a degree of seclusion that was presumably part of its original appeal as a place of clandestine worship. Visitors approaching through the trees will find the shelter modest and functional rather than elaborate, which makes the quality of the carved stonework in its east wall all the more unexpected. The ogee and vaulting details reward close inspection, particularly in low or raking light that picks out the relief. The record was compiled by Caimin O'Brien and Matt Kelleher, based on details provided by Derek Ryan, and was uploaded to the national monuments database in July 2017.