What remains today is primarily a single limestone wall, roughly 11 metres long and 4 metres high, which once formed the northern side of a rectangular structure measuring approximately 12 metres east to west and 5 metres north to south. The castle appears on the 1846 Ordnance Survey map, though by then it was already in its current ruined state.

The surviving wall reveals several interesting architectural features that hint at the castle’s medieval origins. Built from roughly coursed limestone, it sits on a stepped foundation that compensates for the sloping ground on its outer face. At its centre, visitors can spot the remains of a window embrasure with a single flat-headed light, whilst a narrow lintelled passage, just over a metre wide, runs diagonally through the northeastern corner. Near the eastern end of the wall, a rectangular void measuring about one metre by 70 centimetres likely marks the location of a former garderobe shaft; essentially a medieval toilet that would have emptied outside the castle walls.

Local historian Coleman, writing in 1908, attributed the castle’s construction to the Mac Carthy family, who held considerable power in this region of Kerry during the medieval period. Like many tower houses and small castles throughout Ireland, Cloonmealane would have served as both a defensive structure and a symbol of the family’s status and control over the surrounding lands. Today, this lonely fragment of wall stands as a reminder of the area’s turbulent past, when such fortified dwellings dotted the Irish landscape.