There is no visible trace above ground today, nothing to orient yourself by, no worn stonework or earthen outline. What survives is the cartographic notation, the occasional large stone thrown up by a plough, and a tentative identification that connects this unremarkable piece of ground to one of the more consequential figures in twelfth-century Irish ecclesiastical life.

According to Gwynn and Hadcock's survey of medieval religious houses, this is purportedly the site of St Mary's Convent, founded around 1144 by St Malachy, the Archbishop of Armagh who is credited with introducing the Cistercian order to Ireland and who was closely associated with Bernard of Clairvaux. If the identification is correct, the community did not remain here long. By around 1195, it had been transferred to Grace Dieu, a priory of Augustinian canonesses in north County Dublin that continued in use until the Dissolution. The stones noted during ploughing, recorded by Healy in 1975, suggest some kind of substantial structure once occupied the ground, though without excavation it is impossible to say how much, or how little, remains below the surface.

The site sits in what is now cultivated ground, and there is nothing to greet a visitor beyond the landscape itself. The area is not signposted or interpreted, and the glass-covered garden plot that overlies the monastery site is not publicly accessible. What makes the detour worthwhile, if you are already moving through this part of Dublin, is the quality of the absence rather than any physical feature; the first edition OS six-inch map, which can be consulted through the historic maps viewer on the Ordnance Survey Ireland website, gives the clearest sense of how this site was understood in the nineteenth century, and that document is arguably more informative than the ground itself.