On the crest of a west-facing slope above a quiet north-south valley in County Waterford, a large rectangular graveyard holds the remains of a medieval Augustinian abbey alongside a small collection of carved stonework that has survived, in fragments, against considerable odds. The graveyard itself is substantial, measuring roughly 90 metres along its northwest-southeast axis and around 75 metres across, which gives a sense of how significant this site once was, even if little of the original abbey fabric now rises above ground level.

The abbey at Mothel belonged to the Augustinian order, a network of religious houses that spread widely across Ireland during the medieval period. What remains within the graveyard includes parts of a chest tomb, a type of raised box-like monument common in late medieval Irish ecclesiastical sites, along with three graveslabs and a cross-slab. The cross-slab is particularly notable; a note published in the Waterford Archaeological Journal as far back as 1897 recorded a cross-inscribed pillar stone at Mothel, suggesting the site attracted antiquarian attention well over a century ago. Peter Harbison's standard guide to Ireland's national and historic monuments also documented the site, placing it within the broader record of the country's medieval remains.