This early 17th-century fortified house was built by the Barret family, who chose this commanding position for both its defensive advantages and stunning views across the river valley to the north. The original structure met a violent end during the turbulent 1640s, when it was ruined during the Confederate Wars, leaving it to stand as a romantic ruin for two centuries.

When antiquarian John Windele visited in the early 1840s, he found the walls still standing nearly to their full height, though the roof, floors, and stairs had long since vanished, along with the stone window frames. This ghostly shell caught the attention of the Hoare family, who commissioned the renowned architectural firm of Deane and Woodward to undertake an extensive renovation in the 1850s. The Victorian restoration transformed the ruins into a four-bay, three-storey residence with an attic level, crowned by a gabled roof with distinctive subsidiary gables centred on both the north and south walls.

Despite the 19th-century alterations, several original defensive features survive from the castle’s earliest days. Corner bartizans, those characteristic rounded turrets, still project from the southwest and northeast corners at second-floor level; remnants of the building’s military past. Original hood mouldings frame the window openings, whilst string courses mark the divisions between storeys, adding horizontal emphasis to the vertical mass of the structure. Now a private residence, the castle maintains its watchful position above the river, with the remains of an even earlier medieval castle visible immediately to the west, testament to the site’s long history as a strategic stronghold.