The building met its end in 1972 when demolition crews cleared the site, making way for a modern house that stands there today. No trace remains of what was once one of three castles dotting this historic settlement, each playing its part in the complex tapestry of 17th century Irish history.

The Civil Survey of 1654 to 1656 documented these three fortifications, whilst the Down Survey maps, drawn up shortly after, provide fascinating visual evidence of Saggart’s medieval past. Two of the castles appear on these maps as tower house structures, typical defensive buildings of the period, whilst the third is rather poignantly marked as a ‘stump of a Castle’, suggesting it had already fallen into ruin by the 1650s. The accompanying terrier records paint a vivid picture of the settlement at this time, describing ‘two Castles in repaire and one Stump of a Castle with some Thatcht Houses and Cabbins’, revealing how these fortifications stood alongside the humble dwellings of ordinary folk.

These detailed surveys, created in the aftermath of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, captured Saggart at a pivotal moment in its history. The maps, originally drawn by William Petty in 1657 and later copied by Daniel O’Brien in the 1780s, now reside in the National Library of Ireland and Trinity College Dublin. They serve as invaluable windows into a landscape that has been utterly transformed, where castle walls once rose from what is now suburban Dublin, and where the echoes of medieval Ireland have been replaced by the quiet streets of a modern village.