The site, which once boasted a spacious fortified house within a substantial bawn, now exists mainly as historical memory and fragmentary remains. The castle’s most prominent surviving feature is a flanking tower at the northwest corner of the bawn wall, standing some 30 to 40 feet high according to early 20th-century accounts, though the main castle building itself has completely vanished above ground.

Historical records paint a picture of the estate’s former grandeur. The Down Survey maps from 1655-6 clearly depict a castle within its large bawn, along with three houses situated outside the defensive walls. The accompanying terrier describes “a very Spacious House at Ballykeife with Small Thatcht Houses”, owned by the Countess of Ormond in 1640. The property’s connection to the powerful Ormond family stretched back centuries; Thomas, the Black Earl of Ormond, held Ballykeeffe in 1550, whilst James Shortall, who died around 1540, styled himself “lord of Balylorcan and of Balykife” on monuments in St. Canice’s Cathedral and the Black Abbey, though he held the land as a feudal tenant rather than outright owner.

The site’s transformation over time can be traced through Ordnance Survey maps. The first edition from 1839 marks both a “Castle (in ruins)” and a “Tower”, whilst later revisions continued to note these features, though there appears to have been some confusion; the bawn wall running northeast from the flanking tower was mistakenly identified as the castle itself. Just north of the bawn wall, a pond measuring approximately 18 metres by 11 metres appeared on both the 1839 map and the 1899-1900 revision, adding to the estate’s pastoral character. Today, visitors to Ballykeeffe will find only subtle traces of this once-impressive stronghold, a reminder of how even the mightiest structures can fade into the Irish landscape.