The Madigan family tomb sits flush against the older fabric, the two structures merged into a single green mass. Even before the ivy took hold, a survey conducted in 1840 found the church so far gone as to be barely worth describing in detail, noting that all its features had been destroyed except the choir arch, and that the west gable had been reduced to its foundations.

The place-name itself carries some useful history. According to Begley, writing in 1906, Clonagh derives from the Irish Cluianeach, meaning roughly "insular meadow of horses," a reference to the fact that the land surrounding the elevated churchyard was liable to flooding in earlier centuries. The site appears in the documentary record as Cluonech in 1201, and grants connected to it were made by Bishop Robert and a chaplain named Martin in 1252 and 1257. By 1615 it was already being recorded as ruinous. The choir arch, which survived long enough for nineteenth-century observers to examine it, was considered relatively late in date, possibly introduced after the arrival of the Normans, while portions of the north wall of the nave were thought to suggest considerably greater antiquity. Close to the church stands St Kieran's Well, dedicated to the sixth-century saint associated with the great monastic site of Clonmacnoise. A pattern, the traditional Irish gathering held on a saint's feast day, was observed here annually on the ninth of September, a custom still noted as continuing in the modern parish of Coolcappa as recently as Begley's time.

The site lies in the townland of Clonagh and is most easily approached with the knowledge that the ruins are heavily overgrown and that the Madigan mausoleum, rather than the medieval walls, is likely to be the most legible structure on the ground. Those visiting in early September may find additional interest in locating St Kieran's Well nearby, which retains its association with the feast day even if the formal pattern gathering has long since faded. The ivy covering makes close inspection of the medieval stonework largely impractical, so the value of a visit lies more in the layered history of the place than in any surviving architectural detail.