The British Museum describes it as 'dated on stylistic grounds to late 16th C but incorporating earlier rock crystal charmstones in which there was revived interest in the 16th C.', and dates its own Lochbuie Brooch, which it believes was by the same hand, to '1600 (circa)'. The dating of the Brooch of Lorn varies somewhat, though all contemporary specialists are clear that it is from well after Robert the Bruce's lifetime. The use of 'turrets' as decoration was popular in late medieval jewellery, but usually in far less elaborate forms, with brooches having a number of small projecting turrets around a ring forming the brooch. The style of decoration appears influenced by European workshops, and the brooch lacks the post- Insular motifs seen in the Lochbuie Brooch, and other late medieval West Highland objects in various media. There is 'a profusion of filigree work in the form of stellate appliqué ornaments and cabled borders'.

Underneath the central stone is an empty compartment (said in 1905 to contain fragments of human bone), probably designed to hold a relic the stone is set well above the base disc, and is surrounded by eight detached chatons or turrets, about 1.25 inches high, and each topped by a Scottish freshwater pearl. The silver disc at the back of the brooch is about 4.5 inches across, and the brooch is secured by a hinged pin (a later replacement) and catch behind it. In the following months a replica made in recent years was exhibited in six local libraries in Argyll.

All three were exhibited together in the British Museum's exhibition Shakespeare: Staging the World in 2012. The others are the Lochbuy or Lochbuie Brooch in the British Museum, and the Ugadale or Lossit Brooch, also still in private hands. The brooch is one of three West Highland 16th-century silver turreted brooches centred on charmstones, though the brooches are thought to be resettings of stones which already had reputations. Modern copy of the Ugadale or Lossit Brooch, a 16th-century 'turreted' brooch, which also contained a relic.

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