The semi-circular sweep of the enclosure, noted by researcher D.L. Swan in 1988, is the principal clue that this site was once a formally enclosed ecclesiastical settlement, of the kind that typically surrounded an early Irish church, its associated buildings, and the community that served it. These enclosures, often circular or sub-circular in plan, were a standard feature of early Christian monasticism in Ireland, and their shape sometimes survives long after everything else has changed, fossilised in field boundaries, roads, or, as here, in graveyard walls.

The site sits on a low hillock in undulating grassland, which would have given it a degree of natural prominence and visibility in the landscape. Within the graveyard itself, the ruins of a medieval church occupy the southern quadrant, suggesting a continuity of religious use across several centuries. The broader landscape adds further texture: Lough Nacarrick lies roughly 100 metres to the north-north-east, a castle sits some 240 metres to the north-east, and a ringfort occupies ground about 190 metres to the south-west, alongside what was historically the glebe land associated with the church. Glebe land was the portion of agricultural ground set aside for the financial support of a parish clergyman, and its presence here points to the long institutional life of this modest hilltop site. Swan's identification of the enclosure remains tentative, framed as a possibility rather than a confirmed feature, but the convergence of the curved wall, the medieval ruins, and the accumulated archaeology of the surrounding area makes Killadoughran a quietly suggestive corner of Westmeath.