That single carved number is the reason the building appears in the Dublin Record of Monuments and Places, logged there as a datestone rather than as a grand ruin or a celebrated landmark. The house itself, known as Kill Abbey, sits to the west of Kill of the Grange church and its associated graveyard, and it has spent several centuries being quietly extraordinary while attracting comparatively little attention.

Writing in 1869, J. Gaskin described Kill Abbey as potentially one of the oldest houses in Ireland, noting that the date above the entrance door indicated it was either erected or repaired in 1595. By 1902, the historian F.E. Ball had traced the story a little further back, recording that the house was likely built by a John Ussher on a plot of ground he had leased in 1592 from the Chapter of Christ Church Cathedral. Later in its history the property became associated with the Espinasse family, and W.F. Wakeman, visiting in 1896 as part of a Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland excursion, described it as a venerable residence of that family. Ball observed that by his time the house had lost many of its original characteristics, though it remained surrounded by yew trees of extreme age. The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage notes a weathered coat of arms on the building showing a griffin rampant, along with a compact plan form, a high-pitched roof, and windows that diminish in scale on each successive floor, creating a graduated visual effect. A later surface finish is thought to conceal blocked-up openings that would have matched those still visible.

Kill Abbey is a private residence rather than a visitor attraction, so the datestone above the door is not something one can simply walk up and examine. The house appears on Ordnance Survey Ireland maps in the vicinity of Kill Lane, to the west of the medieval church and graveyard at Kill of the Grange, which are themselves worth seeking out. The graveyard in particular is accessible and contains fabric of considerable age. For those with an interest in early post-medieval domestic architecture, even a passing view of Kill Abbey from the lane gives some sense of its unusual longevity, a sixteenth-century house that has absorbed later alterations, grown over with ancient yews, and continued to be lived in across the centuries.