A (broad): This face is very worn so that the surface detail is difficult to detect. There are the remains of three medallions of a double-stranded medallion scroll. The strands do not cross to form the medallions but are 'clipped' together. (i) The uppermost medallion, i, is divided from ii by triple serrated leaves, ii from iii by a pair of half-moon leaves which sheath a bud. The animal in i appears to be a biped which rears up and turns back to bite at a berry or flower. A spray partly covers its front leg, and a plant motif appears to pass through its body. It appears to have a tail. (ii) A quadruped facing right, its head poised to snap at the berry bunch. Plants cluster thickly around it, and one curls over its haunches like a second tail; another appears to pass through its neck. The creature's body tapers to the hips. It has a cat-like head and rounded ears. (iii) A quadruped faces left. Its head reaches forward with open jaws to bite at a berry bunch and it has a slightly crouching posture. Its tail is curved over its back and it has a canine head with pointed ears. Plants sprout between its front and back legs.

B (narrow): This face is so worn that details are difficult to determine. It appears to show the remains of three serpentine creatures in procession. Their bodies are arched into an S shape and their extremities are interlaced. At the top are the haunches of one beast, and its tail interlaces with the long beaked jaws and ear or plume extension of the creature behind. The head of the creature lowest on the shaft is very worn but the fine-stranded knots which are formed for its tail and head extensions are clearly visible.

C (broad): This face is well preserved save for a secondary hole and a clumsy repair at the base. Three volutes of a simple scroll survive. In the upper two complete volutes the triangular berry bunches curl upwards from the main stem which divides to fill the space between the volutes with three veined triangular leaves; from the nodes above and below spring long, curling, split leaves which encircle the berries strand. The nodes are swelling and ridged. In between each volute, alternating with the triple leaves, are double buds sheathed by half-moon leaves.

D (narrow): Two complete medallions survive formed by simple crossing strands; large triangular and veined leaves sprout from the interior of each medallion and their long stems cross to form an interior medallion for a detached rosette flower or berry bunch before passing over or under the outside medallion strands to fill the spaces in between the volutes. The leaves have prominent, detached lobes or are flanked by berries, and other detached berries fill the spaces inside the medallions. The plant strands are widely spaced and the face deeply cut leaving an open background which has been roughened – perhaps to receive paint.

This piece is as outstanding (within the Cumbrian series) for its date as Bewcastle is for its period. The cutting of the ornament on the unworn faces, C and D, is very confident and crisp, and even on the worn face, A, it is possible to discern the high quality of this carving. Several fragments from the abbey of San Dalmazzo, Borgo, Italy, show scroll details which resemble those on this cross, including volutes containing rosettes or tightly curling scrolls (Novelli 1974, figs. 7 and 8) and parallels with other Italian scrolls of c. AD 800 have been pointed out in the introduction. The inhabited scroll is unusual in its formation since the circular volutes are clipped together rather than formed from crossing strands. Such scroll organization is to be found in early sixth-century scrolls from Khirbet-El Beida, Syria, or in much later Byzantine-influenced art in Italy, as in the eleventh-century portal from San Lorenzo, Genova (Bozzo 1966, fig. 99), but it is a unique type in English sculpture. The animals are perfectly English, however. The cat-like creatures with puffed out chests can be paralleled in manuscripts like the Leningrad Gospels, fol. 18, which has been associated with eighth-century Northumbria (Alexander 1978, ill. 192); and its type of canine quadruped occurs at Easby, Yorkshire (Kendrick 1943, pl. LXII) as well as in later Midland art, as for example at Cropthorne, Worcestershire (ibid., pl. LXXX, 1). Creatures not dissimilar to the uppermost figure are also to be found on the canon tables of the Leningrad Gospels, fols. 13 and 16 (Alexander 1978, ills. 189–90). The reptilian creatures on Face B are also clearly linked with those found in Insular manuscripts such as Durham Cathedral A.II.17, fol. 2 (Alexander 1978, ill. 47) although they do occur in a later form on northern sculpture at York (Collingwood 1927a, fig. 147); while rosettes occur frequently in eighth-century manuscripts as well as on the Italianate sculpture noted above.

One must therefore see this piece as reflecting assimilated Classical motifs in a competent sculptural manner, but also reflecting the motifs and taste of manuscript artists of the late eighth century.