The formal designation, Teampall Inis Mac Adhaimh, refers to the island of the sons of Adam, yet local tradition insists the building belongs to a saint called Mocán or Smocán, a figure whose cult left almost no other trace in the written record. That double identity gives the place an air of quiet ambiguity that its well-preserved stonework only deepens.

The church is modest in footprint, measuring roughly 15.6 metres in length and 5 metres in width, oriented ENE to WSW as was common in medieval Irish ecclesiastical architecture. What survives is architecturally more accomplished than its remote coastal setting might suggest. The south wall once held a doorway now robbed of most of its stone, but the scattered fragments confirm it had a pointed arch and a moulded architrave, features consistent with late medieval craftsmanship. Directly opposite in the north wall is a later doorway, also pointed, suggesting the building was modified or extended at some point after its initial construction. The most decorative element is the east gable window, which has a cusped ogee head, decorated spandrels, and a hood-moulding; an ogee arch curves outward before curving back to a point, and the spandrels are the triangular spaces flanking it, here carved with ornamental detail. Inside, a later partition at the western end may have supported a gallery above, and the space has been interpreted as possible priest's quarters, implying the building retained some functional or residential use well into the post-medieval period. The church sits approximately 85 metres south of an irregularly shaped graveyard, and the proximity to the shore suggests a community that oriented its religious life toward the sea.