Set on prime agricultural land that slopes gently towards Lough Foyle to the east, this ancient monastery sits within a sub-rectangular graveyard containing numerous historical features. Local tradition holds that St. Patrick himself founded the monastery here, a claim that speaks to the site’s significance in Irish ecclesiastical history. The location’s strategic position, with its fertile soil and proximity to water, would have made it an ideal spot for a monastic community seeking both spiritual isolation and practical sustainability.

Recent archaeological work has revealed much more about Cooly’s hidden past. In 2014, the Bernician Studies Group conducted a magnetometer survey of the fields surrounding the churches and graveyard, which uncovered the outline of the original ecclesiastical enclosure that once defined the boundaries of this Early Christian monastery. This non-invasive technique allowed researchers to map subsurface features without disturbing the ground, revealing the true extent of the monastic settlement that once thrived here.

The site continues to yield discoveries. During a clean-up scheme in 2010, several previously unrecorded cross-slabs came to light within the graveyard. Among the monuments, the Bernician Studies Group documented a small freestanding cross-inscribed stone, measuring just 31cm high, 15cm wide, and 9cm thick. Though its exact date remains uncertain, this modest stone cross stands as a tangible link to the generations of monks and faithful who once walked these grounds, their devotion literally carved in stone.