That arc, almost imperceptible unless you are looking for it, is thought to mark the outer boundary of an Early Christian ecclesiastical enclosure, the kind of roughly circular or oval precinct that early Irish monasteries typically defined around their churches and associated buildings. The ruin of the church itself sits at the foot of a hill, and nearby is a holy well known as Tober-Aidan, dedicated to the founder or patron saint of the site.

The abbey of Foyran, whose name appears in various early spellings including Faebhrom, Faobhran, and Faoibhréan, was most probably founded in the sixth century. The Annals of the Four Masters record the death of Eochaidh, Abbot of Faebhran, at A.D. 754, which confirms the site was an active monastic community well into the early medieval period. The patron saint associated with it is Aodh, known locally as Aodhán or Edan, whose feast day falls on the 1st of November and is recorded in the Martyrology of Donegal as the festival of St. Aedh, son of Brec, of Foibren. The name of the holy well, Tober-Aidan, preserves a version of the same figure. Scholars have noted that this Aodh of Foyran is almost certainly the same saint as Aodh of Rahugh, another Westmeath monastery, suggesting that the same founder was venerated across more than one site. By 1870, the historian Cogan was describing the church as long since ruined, set in what he called wild, lonely country, a description that may still carry some truth today.