The house now known as Moore Abbey carries within its walls the physical residue of at least four distinct periods, layered so thoroughly that a datestone from 1607, two reused sixteenth-century jamb stones, and the vaulted brick arches of an older basement all coexist quietly beneath a building that was substantially rebuilt in 1767. That the whole complex sits on the former grounds of a Carmelite abbey, a mendicant order who established enclosed communities across medieval Ireland, adds yet another stratum to the confusion.

A 1596 lease on the Manor of Evon, the area now known as Monasterevin, described the property as having a fair hall, a stable, kitchen, other rooms, an orchard, and a watermill, suggesting a well-appointed estate even before the seventeenth century took hold of the place. The sixteenth or seventeenth century house that eventually rose on the abbey's foundations became the seat of the Moores, earls of Drogheda, and it is their coat of arms that appears on the later porch. The entrance doorway, however, carries a finely worked seventeenth-century surround associated with the Loftus family, a detail that points to an earlier ownership or connection now somewhat obscured. The 1767 rebuilding is what gives the house its present form, though the large hall to the right of the entrance and the vaulted basements below may preserve fabric from the century before. In those basements, plaster covers most of the brickwork, but red brick is still visible in some of the arches. At some point in the early twentieth century, the tenor John McCormack, one of the most celebrated singers of his era, lived here. The property is now operated as a healthcare facility by the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary, and has been considerably renovated since.