Local tradition holds that St. Patrick himself founded this religious settlement, and whilst such claims are often difficult to verify, the site’s prominent position and collection of early medieval monuments certainly speak to its historical importance. Just outside the western entrance to the graveyard stands a tall, plain high cross with a distinctive ring connecting its arms, a style typical of early Irish Christian art.

Within the graveyard walls, visitors can explore the ruins of two medieval churches and what appears to be a mortuary house or tomb shrine. One of these churches continued to serve the local parish well into the medieval period, maintaining the site’s religious significance for centuries. The graveyard has yielded other intriguing finds, including a fragment of a broken cross-slab discovered near the southern church during a clean-up project in 2010. This stone fragment features a ringed cross with arms that extend beyond the ring, a design element that helps date it to the early medieval period.

The Cooley Cross Heritage Committee has done valuable work documenting the site, producing detailed plans that map the locations of various monuments and discoveries within the graveyard. Their efforts, combined with the Archaeological Survey of County Donegal compiled by Brian Lacey and colleagues, provide crucial documentation of this atmospheric site where centuries of Irish Christian heritage lie beneath the Donegal soil, from its possibly Patrician origins through its medieval parish life to the present day.