The church is part of a larger sacred landscape that includes multiple holy wells, a cross-inscribed pillar stone, and approximately 26 cairns that likely served as penitential stations along the pilgrimage route. Just three metres southwest of the church, visitors can find the collapsed remains of a beehive structure, partially built into the mountain slope with its entrance facing east, whilst about 20 metres north stands a cross-inscribed pillar stone rising from what may be a leacht, positioned immediately west of one of the site’s holy wells.

The site’s three holy wells, marked on old Ordnance Survey maps, were central to the religious practices here. One well, located 34 metres southeast of the church, consists of a natural spring enclosed by dry stone walls with a roughly shaped standing stone marking its location. The wells are associated with Saint Hugh MacBrick, a bishop who died in 588 and whose feast day on 10th November made for challenging pilgrimage conditions on this exposed mountain. According to the Martyrology of Donegal, Hugh was the son of Bric, son of Cormac, son of Cremthann, son of Fiacha, and was born in Cillair of Meath. He is said to be buried alongside Bishop Assicus of Elphin at Racoo, near Ballintra.

Though the November timing may have contributed to the pilgrimage’s decline over the centuries, the site experienced a remarkable revival in September 1909 when over 2,000 people, led by local clergy, performed the traditional turas (pilgrimage circuit). A local poet commemorated this event with an Irish poem published in the Derry Journal, demonstrating the enduring cultural significance of this ancient sacred site. Today, the church and its associated features form National Monument No. 139, preserving this important piece of Ireland’s early Christian heritage on the dramatic heights of Slieve League.