According to the antiquarian Thomas Johnson Westropp, "Brought into contact with the pagans of the Corcomroes, Brecan probably conceived the idea of founding a mission in the centre of the present county Clare; and with that wonderful genius and power of selection of strategic positions, so generally displayed by the Irish missionaries, he fixed his establishment at a place called Noughaval, in the district of Magh Adhair.

It was a low green ridge, not far from the Fergus, and commanding a view across the whole plain of Clare to Burren, Echtge, and Slieve Bernagh; here he built a church, which formed an independent parish of Kilbrecan, down to, at any rate, the fourteenth century.

The name is still preserved in two adjoining townlands, but the massive “cyclopean” foundations of the little oratory are now called Carntemple, and the holy well is Tubberdooran.

[2] Westropp writes elsewhere, "Less than a mile to the north [of Clare Abbey] the grim stone faces on the ivied church of Doora stare across the swamp.

Little over a mile to the east stands the venerable church of Killoe (Killuga in 1302), the cell of some Lingad, perhaps the earlier patron of Killaloe.