In his Vita Sancti Columbae (Life of St. Columba), Adomnán refers to the abbey, saying that its name means a (little field) of the cow: "quod Latine Campulus Bovis dicitur, Scotice vero Achadh-bou"[1] The abbey grew into a major centre of learning, commerce and agriculture.

Among the monks from the abbey was St. Virgilius (Feargal or Farrell), a noted geometer and astronomer who was abbot before he left Ireland and built the cathedral at Salzburg in Austria in the 8th century.

[citation needed] The Annals of Inisfallen note that "Repose of Scandlán grandson of Tadc, abbot of Achad Bó" happened in the year 782.

[2] In 1346 "The one eyed Diarmaid Mac Giollaphádraig ... aided by the Uí Céarbhail ... burned the town of Aghaboe and the cemetery and church and cruelly forsaking St. Canice, abbot, patron of the neighbourhood and found of the place, he, like a degenerate son to his father, burnt and completely destroyed with the crullest fire, the saint's shrine with his bones and relics.".

[6] The ruins on the site belong to a Dominican friary founded in 1382 by Finghan MacGillapatrick, Lord of Upper Ossory.