That carved date is one of the few fixed points in a building that accumulated layers of construction, alteration, and partial abandonment across at least five centuries, with earlier phases partially obscuring and overwriting one another so thoroughly that the sequence has to be read from voussoir angles, blocked embrasures, and changes in masonry style.

The site sits on a south-facing slope in County Kilkenny, part of a complex that also includes a round tower, two ogham stones (upright inscribed stones carrying early medieval texts in the ogham alphabet), a cross base, and a number of graveslabs. The earliest church here, with antae projecting from its east gable wall, is thought to date to the first half of the 11th century. Antae are the side-wall extensions that flank the gable ends of early Irish churches, characteristic of the period. The place may correspond to Telach nInmainne, mentioned in the annals in 1026 when it was raided, and again in 1121 when the round tower was struck by lightning and falling stone killed a student. The patron saint was St Ciarán, and by 1839 a pattern, a traditional outdoor gathering on a saint's feast day, was still being held here on the 5th of March, though it had apparently ceased not long before that record was written. Robert Gaffney, rector of the church, left 20 shillings in his will in 1591 towards repairs; in 1615 a royal visitation recorded the church and chancel as being in good order. A century later, by 1715 and again in 1731, the nave was already in ruin while the chancel was still in use.

The walls carry the physical evidence of each major intervention. The lowest courses of the 11th-century church are large, roughly cut blocks; the masonry changes above them, and changes again through 12th, 13th, and 15th-century campaigns. A decorated jamb stone with a chevron design and foliate panel, likely Romanesque in character, suggests remodelling around the 12th century. By the 15th century, a parapet with a wall-walk had been added to the nave, its thin floor slabs still visible, sloping outward to drain-holes. A small rectangular mausoleum was later inserted into the east end of the chancel once that part of the building had been abandoned. The west end of the south wall is built in a noticeably different style from the rest, suggesting a complete rebuild at some point, possibly after a collapse, with no attempt to reinstate the parapet that survives along the rest of the wall.