Roughly the height of a tall person and less than a metre wide, it carries a coat-of-arms in its upper section, enclosed within a square frame whose corners are chamfered, that is, cut at a slight diagonal angle, giving the whole composition a restrained, almost architectural quality. What makes the stone quietly arresting, once you notice it, is that it has been broken clean across its middle and reassembled, the horizontal crack still visible, the upper portions repaired with cement along the top and sides. The stone is not pristine; it is a survivor.

The slab is cut from limestone and measures approximately 1.68 metres high, 0.68 metres wide, and around 8 centimetres thick. It rests on a chamfered cut-limestone base and is fixed to the wall. The armorial design itself is divided into two parts: a shield in the lower section crossed by two diagonal bands, and a symmetrical design above. Natural quartz veins run through the stone, particularly to the left of the coat-of-arms, giving the grey limestone an unexpected glint depending on the light. Whose arms these are is not recorded in what survives, but the scale and placement of the monument within the choir suggest a family of some local consequence, commemorated here within one of the most significant Franciscan abbeys in Munster, founded in the fifteenth century and used as a burial place by prominent Kerry families for generations.

Muckross Abbey sits within Killarney National Park and is freely accessible on foot from the main estate paths. The choir and its monuments are open to the elements through the unroofed nave, so light conditions inside shift considerably through the day; the quartz veining in this particular stone tends to catch the light best when the sun reaches the north wall in the afternoon hours.