Archaeologist, Thomas Johnson Westropp in 1900, describes the exposed and less than ideal siting of the abbey as being located in a grassland area, surrounded by marshy land prone to flooding by the River Fergus.

[7] The bloody aftermath was described in the medieval chronicle, Caithréim Thoirdhealbhaigh (Wars of Torlough): 'The rout of the Abbey on Mahon O'Brien' became a proverb in the mouths of clan Torlagh.

They captured many of the 'soldiers, fair-haired women, little boys, servants, kerne, horseboys, and herdsmen, making of them one universal litter of slaughter, butchering both prisoners and cattle in the bog of Moonshade, between Furroor and Dysert'.In the thirteenth century, the two leading clans of County Clare, the O’Briens and the Macnamaras, changed their family burial places to Ennis Friary and Quin Abbey.

"[6] After the dissolution of the monasteries in 1543, the abbey and surrounding lands, now the civil parish of Clareabbey, were given to the Barons of Ibrackan by King Henry VIII of England.

The single-aisled church, which consists of a long nave and chancel is separated by a tower, and dates to the late twelfth century.

When Westropp visited the site in 1886, he noted that the belfry had no staircase and he viewed a large tomb, with no inscription, lying in the north recess under the tower.

He mentioned low and badly proportioned battlements of the tower, and also described that many loose stones that were visible in the buildings in the late 1800s were reset and repaired in 1898 and 1899.