The effect is quietly disorienting: a roughly square plot of ground that appears almost suspended, the surrounding land having been gradually cut back until the graveyard alone remained, untouchable by the quarrymen's work. Within it, the church has long since collapsed to almost nothing, its outline now visible only as low, grass-covered wall footings no more than forty centimetres high.

The church's history stretches back to at least the early medieval period. Before around 1300 it formed part of Finglas parish, one of the older ecclesiastical territories north of Dublin. It then passed into the hands of All Hallows, an Augustinian priory founded in Dublin, whose canons were responsible for saying mass there. All Hallows held considerable lands across the region, and Cloghran was one of many dependencies absorbed into its network. When Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, the priory's possessions, including this chapel and its lands, were granted to Dublin Corporation in 1538, a transfer documented by Ronan in 1940. The wall footings that survive are built of randomly coursed masonry, meaning the stones are laid without uniform rows or a regular pattern, giving the structure a rougher, more improvised appearance than dressed ashlar work. The remains measure roughly thirteen metres in length and five and a half metres in width, with gaps visible in both the north and south walls where openings once stood.

The site is within a working graveyard, so access is generally straightforward, though the quarried ground around it means the approach can feel abrupt. The east end of the former church is now dominated by a large tree, which makes orientation easy once you are inside the graveyard boundary. Some burials have taken place within the footprint of the church walls themselves, a common occurrence at early Irish ecclesiastical sites where the ground was considered especially sacred. The wall footings are best appreciated in low light, when the slight rise of the grass-covered masonry becomes more legible against the surrounding ground.