The structure, roughly five by three metres internally, sits in the northern corner of an enclosure at a place called Fohernamanagh, or Fothair na Manach in Irish, a name that translates loosely as the monastic settlement or resting place of the monks. The walls survive to about 1.3 metres at their highest point, and the entrance, which would have been in the south-east wall, has largely fallen away. The building itself is quiet and fragmentary, but the name of the place and the traditions attached to it suggest something older and more consequential beneath the surface.

The ecclesiastical character of Fohernamanagh rests less on physical evidence than on accumulated tradition. St. Brendan, the sixth-century navigator saint associated with the fantastical voyage account known as the Navigatio Sancti Brendani, is said to have founded a monastery here, and separately to have stayed at this location before setting out on that legendary journey across the Atlantic. These associations were recorded by O'Donoghue in 1895 and by the Irish-language scholar An Seabhac in 1939. Whether or not the building itself has any direct connection to that early monastic period is impossible to say from what survives, but the convergence of a monastic place-name, Brendan's founding tradition, and a pre-departure sojourn makes the site quietly suggestive. The Dingle Peninsula sits at the far western edge of Ireland, a natural embarkation point for anyone setting their face towards the open Atlantic, and it is worth noting that several sites along this coastline preserve similar Brendan associations.