In 1988, researcher Swan observed that the segmental form of the graveyard's boundary wall was consistent with a possible early ecclesiastical enclosure, the roughly circular or oval perimeter that commonly defined monastic sites in early Christian Ireland. Such enclosures were often defined by a raised earthwork or bank, and their shape, once established, could persist for centuries in the form of later field boundaries, roads, or in this case a graveyard wall.

The site is associated with Lomán of Lough Owel, known in Irish as Lough Uair, a saint said to be the son of one Oireannan. Lomán gave his name to the place, Portlomáin or Teach Lomáin, which may also have been known as Teach Mic Luim. His church here stood on the Slighe Asail, one of the ancient highways of early Ireland, a detail that would have made the site both accessible and significant in the wider landscape of early Christian movement and pilgrimage. A second church associated with Lomán stood on Church Island in Lough Owel itself. Local tradition recorded that the Amhra, a sacred song attributed to Colum Cille, was sung along a penitential route or station running between the church at Portloman and a cross, with the penitential station known as Leac Lomán lying roughly 800 metres to the south-west. His feast day was observed on either the 7th or 3rd of February, the uncertainty itself a reminder of how thinly documented many early Irish saints remain.