This former stronghold of the O’Kellys of Hy-Many once stood as an imposing square tower, rising approximately four storeys high with distinctive sloping walls at its base. When the antiquarian Francis Grose documented the castle in 1791, it was still largely intact, featuring a pointed arch doorway at its centre, flanked by a spiral staircase, and crowned with defensive machicolations; stone boxes projecting from the walls that allowed defenders to drop objects on attackers below.

Today, visitors will find a much different scene. Only fragmentary sections of the north and west walls survive at the northwest corner, measuring 8.7 metres and 6 metres respectively. The rest of the castle’s footprint can be traced through grassed-over foundation lines that reveal a rectangular building measuring roughly 12 metres by 8 metres. Apart from what might be a window embrasure or wall cupboard in the western wall, the architectural details that Grose meticulously recorded, including the narrow slit windows and round-headed openings, have vanished with time.

The castle grounds still hold clues to its medieval layout. Traces of an earthen bank curve from west to north, suggesting the castle once sat within a circular enclosure approximately 70 metres in diameter, though much of this defensive perimeter has been lost. Around the castle ruins, irregular patterns of stone walls, now covered in grass, along with various mounds and hollows, hint at the auxiliary buildings and structures that would have supported castle life in its heyday.