The 1838 Ordnance Survey 6-inch map marks a ‘Castle (in ruins)’ amongst a small cluster of buildings, though exactly which structure earned this designation remains unclear. The largest building in the group seems the most likely candidate, and by 1892, the OS 25-inch plan showed it as the remains of a roughly square structure measuring approximately 14 metres north to south and 13 metres east to west, with only its eastern wall and the returns of the northern and southern walls still standing.

The plot thickens with the building’s mysterious disappearance from official records. When the 1927-8 edition of the 25-inch plan was published, the ruins had vanished from the map entirely, removed on the advice of local antiquarian Matilda Redington. She suggested the ruins were probably those of a farmhouse belonging to the Dominican monks of Athenry rather than a castle proper. Without detailed architectural analysis, however, this interpretation remains just one possibility; the building could indeed have been a castle, as originally recorded.

Today, no visible traces of these enigmatic ruins remain above ground, and several farm buildings have since been constructed to the south of the original site. Whether castle or monastic farmhouse, this lost building represents one of those intriguing gaps in Ireland’s architectural record, where local knowledge, official documentation, and physical evidence don’t quite align, leaving us to wonder about the true nature of what once stood in these peaceful Galway fields.