One of these architectural fragments, separated long ago from its original context, has since been removed from the island and placed in the care of the Office of Public Works under the National Monuments service, which manages many of Ireland's most significant archaeological finds when they become too vulnerable to remain in situ.

The carved stones are documented in O'Sullivan and Sheehan's 1996 archaeological survey of south-west Kerry, which catalogued the ecclesiastical remains on the island in considerable detail. St. Finan's Church takes its name from the early Irish saint Fionán, who is traditionally associated with the founding of a monastery on this small lake island. Island monasteries of this kind were a characteristic feature of early medieval Irish Christianity, the water acting as a natural boundary that reinforced the sense of withdrawal and enclosure central to monastic life. Carved architectural fragments, whether decorative hood-mouldings, cross-slabs, or worked limestone pieces, are among the more durable traces such communities leave behind, though they frequently become detached from their structures over centuries of weathering and neglect.