The castle that once stood here has completely vanished from the landscape, leaving no visible ruins or earthworks to mark its presence. What makes this site particularly intriguing is how later generations chose to memorialise the lost stronghold through architecture.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, the owners of Bellair House constructed Gothic Revival buildings within the courtyard, designed specifically to echo the medieval castle that had long since disappeared. These fanciful structures, built in what’s known as the ‘Gothick’ style (with a ‘k’ to distinguish it from genuine medieval Gothic), were essentially architectural theatre; romantic reimaginings of what a castle should look like rather than accurate reconstructions. This was a common practice amongst the landed gentry of the period, who were swept up in the medieval revival movement that romanticised Ireland’s turbulent past.

The Gothic Revival buildings at Bellair represent a fascinating example of how Irish estates dealt with their medieval heritage. Rather than preserve actual ruins, which may have been seen as inconvenient or unsightly, the landowners created idealised versions that suited their aesthetic sensibilities whilst nodding to the site’s historical significance. According to research by Loeber in 1988, these structures were deliberately designed to imitate the earlier castle, creating a sort of architectural memory of what once stood on these grounds.