Known locally as Caisleán Mael or ‘Bald Castle’, this three-storey tower house was once owned by Mahon O’Brien in 1574. After O’Brien’s failed rebellion and subsequent death in 1586, the English seized the castle along with his other lands. Though it fell into ruins, it was leased to an Englishman named Thomas Cheyny who presumably repaired it. By 1636, the castle had returned to O’Brien hands, only to become embroiled in conflict again when Protestant English settlers accused the O’Briens of Kilkeedy of despoiling them in 1641. The castle may have met its final destruction under the Cromwellian Commissioners in 1654.

Today, only the north wall survives to its full height of about 15 metres, flanked by fragments of the east and west walls. Built from coursed limestone with fine quoinstones and a distinctive base batter, the structure reveals sophisticated medieval construction techniques. The ground floor entrance led through a lobby to a porter’s lodge or guardroom, complete with a barrel-vaulted ceiling formed using wicker centring. The main hall featured an east-west barrel vault and a pointed embrasure with a rectangular window. A spiral staircase at the southeast corner would have provided access to the upper floors, where traces of window embrasures, cupboards, and fireplaces tell of daily life within the castle walls.

The architectural details paint a picture of a well-appointed defensive residence. The first floor contained chambers with ogee-headed windows and a fine fireplace in the north wall, whilst the second floor featured an L-shaped room accessed through a pointed doorway. A garderobe chute on the north wall exterior and various storage cupboards throughout the structure speak to the practical considerations of castle living. Prominent corbels above the main entrance likely supported a machicolation for defence, whilst a line of corbels at the top of the second floor would have held a parapet. A grass-covered cairn to the south and surrounding walls may represent the remains of a bawn, the fortified courtyard typical of Irish tower houses, though they could simply be later boundary walls.