Whilst the castle appears on the 1655 Down Survey map of Killagh parish, standing on lands belonging to Sir Thomas Nugent, an ‘Irish Papist’, its physical location has proved elusive to modern researchers. The Down Survey terrier provides a tantalising glimpse of the castle in its heyday, describing it as being ‘in repaire with diverse cabbins’, suggesting it was still inhabited and maintained in the mid-17th century.

In 1959, historian Adams proposed that an ‘old mote’ near Dardistown House might mark the castle’s former site. When archaeological surveyors investigated this feature in 1977, they found what appeared to be a natural ridge encircled by a bank, topped with an artificial structure locals called a ‘cairn’. However, this potential link to the medieval castle has since vanished; by 1983, the mote had been levelled and no trace remained. The surveyor visiting that year found only 19th century farm buildings around Dardistown House, and the property’s owner knew of no local traditions or stories about the castle.

The mystery deepens when considering the cartographic evidence, or rather the lack thereof. Dardistown Castle doesn’t appear on any edition of the Ordnance Survey 6-inch maps, and there’s no evidence to suggest that Dardistown House was constructed on the medieval castle’s foundations. What remains is a ghost castle of sorts; well documented in 17th century records but completely absent from the physical landscape, leaving historians to piece together its story from maps and written accounts rather than stone and mortar.