The name itself offers the first clue to its origins: Kilmurry derives from the Irish Cill Mhuire, meaning the church of Mary, a dedication that places it within a widespread tradition of Marian devotion that shaped the ecclesiastical landscape of early Christian and medieval Ireland. Such place-name evidence often points to foundations considerably older than the stonework that survives above ground.

Beyond the name and its location, the documentary record for this particular site is thin. What can be said with reasonable confidence is that ruined churches of this type in Clare frequently began as early medieval foundations, sometimes associated with a local saint or monastic community, and were later rebuilt or modified in the later medieval period as parish structures under the influence of Anglo-Norman ecclesiastical reorganisation. The pattern of a small, single-nave church enclosed within a burial ground is common across the county. Whether Kilmurry followed that pattern precisely remains to be established from more detailed fieldwork or archival research.