Single cell, nave and chancel church (32.1 m x 6.00 m internally). The E wall and northern return are 13thc., the remainder of the fabric represents a 15thc. enlargement. A plain round-headed window in the N wall may be reused from an earlier structure. Reset carved stones in the E wall may also be from an earlier building.

Founded in the 6thc. by St Finnian, Movilla was one of the most important early monasteries in Ulster. It was plundered by the Vikings in 825 (Annals of Ulster). The Augustinian canons were introduced to Movilla some time after 1135. The plundering of the site is recorded in 1149 and the death of a king and his sons there in 1160. Throughout the Middle Ages the abbey owned extensive lands, and it appears to have been a centre of production for 13thc. foliate coffin lids, an important collection of which are found on site. The abbey was the subject of archaeological excavations during 1980-1.

The shape of the stones on which the heads are carved and the slightly bulging ovoid eyes and large ears of no. 1 suggest a 12thc. date. Their location in the wall suggests a secondary position, which would date them prior to the 13thc. (for 12thc. heads in a 13thc. wall see St Jarlath, Tuam, Galway). However, the condition of the stones, and the popularity of the disembodied head as a sculptural theme throughout the Middle Ages in Ireland, makes it impossible to date these carvings securely to the Romanesque period.