Clare is dense with such ruins, many of them marking the sites of early medieval foundations, some associated with obscure saints whose names survive only in the placenames of the townlands around them. Kilkerin itself follows the familiar Irish naming pattern, with the prefix "Kil" deriving from the Irish "cill", meaning a church or monastic cell, suggesting that whatever stood here was significant enough to give its name to the surrounding area.

Beyond that placename evidence, the documentary record for this particular site remains thin. No specific dates, founding figures, or architectural details are currently available to sketch out its history with any confidence. That absence is itself telling. Many of Clare's smaller rural churches were built, rebuilt, and quietly abandoned across several centuries, used by local communities through the medieval period and then left to the elements as parishes consolidated and populations shifted. The standing fabric, whatever survives at Kilkerin, likely holds more information than any written source, with masonry styles and surviving features offering clues to those trained to read them.