Historical records show the castle was already standing in 1574, when it belonged to one Thomas McHenry. The rectangular four-storey tower measures just over 10 metres long by 7.5 metres wide, and whilst a later annexe was added to its east-south-east wall, the original structure remains remarkably intact.

The castle’s defensive features tell a story of medieval paranoia and practicality. The original entrance, a pointed arch doorway in the east wall, was sealed when the annexe was built; visitors now enter through a damaged doorway in the south wall. Above the old entrance, a murder hole allowed defenders to attack unwelcome guests from above, and this opening now serves as the rather precarious route to the first floor. Stone vaults separate the ground and first floors, as well as the first and second storeys. The builders included all the medieval mod cons: an intramural passage on the first floor leads to a garderobe, whilst internal staircases wind their way from the first floor right up to the roof and wall walks. Corbels jutting from the tops of the walls once supported machicolations, those stone projections that allowed defenders to drop unpleasant surprises on attackers below.

Time hasn’t been entirely kind to Ballinduff Castle; most of the larger second-floor windows have been robbed of their stonework, leaving only simple slits and a single ogee-headed window intact. The annexe, evidenced by a doorway directly above the original entrance, was at least two storeys high, though only fragments of its walls and foundations survive today. To the west lie traces of an old village and Ballinduff Lodge, a Georgian addition to the landscape built in 1796, creating a palimpsest of Irish history across the centuries.