Nearly a third of the tower’s western side has collapsed, taking with it the original doorway and staircase, leaving the structure with a rather dramatic breach that reveals the tower’s internal construction. Despite this substantial damage, the remaining structure, measuring 11.8 metres in diameter, still offers fascinating insights into its original defensive design; you can spot the drawbar socket on the northern side of the breach that marks where the doorway once stood, whilst fragments of the spiral staircase remain visible on the broken wall face above.

The tower’s interior reveals a series of chambers stacked one atop the other, each with its own character and purpose. The ground floor features a circular chamber with three surviving windows set into wide, splayed embrasures with wicker-centred vaults, though their lights have long since vanished. Moving upward, the first floor boasts a rectangular chamber crowned by a wicker-centred vault, illuminated by three windows with elegant ogee-headed lights; these embrasures cleverly incorporate musket loops, allowing defenders to protect the castle whilst remaining sheltered. The upper floors become increasingly inaccessible, but evidence suggests sophisticated planning throughout, including mural passages that likely led to garderobes, and at the very top, three machicolations positioned strategically above the ground floor windows would have allowed defenders to drop unpleasant surprises on unwelcome visitors below.

This castle belonged to the Condons, with Richard Condon of Carrigabrick serving as sheriff of County Cork when he received a pardon in 1567. The castle appears in historical records as part of a grant of lands to Arthur Hyde in 1588, and according to local historian Power, it may have been built on the site of an even earlier fortification, though no trace of that structure remains. The twin garderobe chutes that exit near ground level on the northeast side serve as a rather unglamorous but practical reminder that even in a defensive stronghold, the mundane necessities of daily life had to be accommodated.