That all three survive together at Kilree, arranged across the same gentle summit and its immediate surroundings, gives the site an almost improbable density of early medieval fabric.

The place takes its name, according to the historian William Carrigan writing in 1905, from Cill Ruidhche, meaning the church of St Ruidhche, a female saint whose feast day falls on the 8th of February. The medieval church at the centre of the graveyard dates to the 10th or 11th century and is aligned east to west in the conventional manner. A round tower, one of the slender free-standing bell towers characteristic of early Irish monasticism, stands just 7 metres to the north-west of the church, along the graveyard's western wall. Round towers served both as bell towers and, most likely, as places of refuge and storage during raids. The high cross, a form of elaborately carved free-standing stone monument associated with early Christian Ireland, sits roughly 40 metres west of the graveyard itself. The graveyard measures approximately 67 metres north to south and 43 metres east to west, with the straight western side running north to south and the curving portion to the east, giving it that distinctive D-shape common to early ecclesiastical enclosures in Ireland, where the curve of the boundary is thought to echo the original monastic vallum, or boundary ditch. The earliest surviving grave markers are inside the chancel of the church, where two graveslabs and a chest tomb remain visible.

The entrance to the graveyard faces east, towards the public road, making the site relatively straightforward to approach. The high cross stands outside the enclosure to the west, so it is worth continuing past the graveyard wall rather than stopping at the church alone.