A Cistercian abbey church with a square presbytery and two square chapels in each transept. It has a nave of six bays with alternating square and circular piers (except in the two W bays). The nave is separated from the aisles by thick screen walls of masonry. The E end of the church and conventual buildings were reworked in the 14thc. and 15thc. with the insertion of a new E window, a crossing tower and a richly sculpted cloister.

The abbey was founded c.1160 by Donal MacGillapatrick I, king of Ossory. In c. 1180 it was colonised by Cistercian monks from Baltinglass Abbey (Wicklow) and a Charter (c.1185) of John, Lord of Ireland, confirmed endowments to the church of B Marie de Jeriponte and to the monks of the Cistercian order. In 1217 the abbot of Jerpoint was deposed for instigating a 'riot' in which four other abbots were involved during a visitation. The abbey was taken from Baltinglass and affilliated to Fountains (Yorkshire) although the Irish affiliation was restored about fifty years later. In 1228 the number of religious at Jerpoint was recorded as 36 monks and 50 lay brothers. Following the Dissolution the possessions of the abbey were leased to James, Earl of Ormond and they remained in the Butler family until the late 17thc.

The sculptural detailing of the abbey can be closely linked to that of the mother house at Baltinglass, and Stalley assigned the sculpture of the E arm and first bay of the nave to the Baltinglass workshop. The chevron with foliage in the triangles on the E windows is also found on the N doorway at Baltinglass, and the alternating circular and square piers of the first three bays of the nave are based on the design of Baltinglass. The large square capitals differ from the characteristic elements of Hiberno-Romanesque and are based on a multi-scallop form surmounted by a broad continuous frieze of decorative ornament carved in shallow relief (and no doubt originally painted). The intricate and varied patterns of beaded strapwork, geometric and foliage designs appear to have been developed by the 'Baltinglass Master' (Stalley, 1987), and derived from English models in Herefordshire and Wales (e.g. Hereford Cathedral, Leominster Priory). The scalloped capitals, chevron, and some of the foliage motifs are based on English Romanesque rather than French Cistercian models. The emphasis on abstract ornament and the avoidance of figural or animal motifs conforms to Cistercian ideals, and traditional Hiberno-Romanesque themes such as animal interlace, masks and human heads are avoided. The loose fragments with Irish Urnes style animal interlace are an exception to this avoidance of animal motifs; a similar exception is also found at Baltinglass on the base of the NE crossing pier. Stalley dates the sculpture at Baltinglass and the E parts of Jerpoint to c.1160-80, possibly with the same workshop active simultaneously at both sites. The richly decorated capitals of the first campaign were replaced by plainer scalloped capitals in the later work, and the arcade design was modified with the introduction of octagonal piers in the W bays of the nave. Stalley dates the W. bays and W window 'not much before 1200-1210.' Among the Romanesque fragments preserved in St.Canice's cathedral, Kilkenny are some designs related to the first campaign at Jerpoint; a scalloped capital with a frieze of knotted interlace, and a fragment with Irish-Urnes style animal interlace.