The site centres around a stone-walled graveyard containing numerous grave markers and the ruins of a structure locally known as ‘the Abbey’. This sacred landscape has been a destination for pilgrims for centuries, with visitors still performing the traditional turas, or pilgrimage circuit, around its various stations.

Beyond the graveyard walls, the religious complex extends to include several notable features. About twenty metres south stands a weathered stone cross, its base accompanied by a collection of loose stones that pilgrims traditionally handle as part of their devotional journey. Further southeast, a holy well surrounded by a modern concrete wall continues to draw those seeking both spiritual and physical healing; local tradition holds that visiting Colmcille’s natal stone can cure loneliness, a rather touching belief that speaks to the saint’s enduring role as a source of comfort. St. Columbkille’s Chapel sits just southwest of the main graveyard, completing this cluster of sacred sites.

The entire complex represents layers of continuous religious use from the early medieval period through to the present day. First documented comprehensively in the Archaeological Survey of County Donegal in 1983, the site was already well known to antiquarians; the scholar Ó Muirgheasa noted in 1936 that the turas was still actively performed at Gartan. This continuity of practice, spanning well over a millennium, makes Gartan not just an archaeological site but a living testament to the endurance of Irish religious traditions, where ancient stones and modern pilgrims meet in acts of devotion that would have been familiar to Colmcille himself.