Such enclosures, roughly circular boundaries of earth or stone that once defined the sacred and functional limits of a monastic site, are notoriously easy to overlook. Here, the outlines survive only partially, their original extent difficult to read against the surrounding landscape.

The monastery on Inchmore is said to have been founded by a saint named Laobhán, whose feast day fell on the 9th of August. His genealogy, as recorded in hagiographical tradition, is remarkably crowded. He was one of 47 children born to a woman named Cuman, daughter of Dallbhrónach, who was a maternal aunt to Saint Brighid of Kildare. The same tradition holds that Cuman's womb had been blessed by Saint Patrick himself, which may go some way towards accounting for the extraordinary number of offspring. Whatever one makes of the genealogy, it places Laobhán firmly within the overlapping networks of early Irish sanctity, connecting this quiet island in the Shannon's lough to some of the most prominent names in the Irish church. The medieval church ruins that still stand on the island likely postdate any Early Christian foundation, representing a later phase of religious use on the same ground.