The western end of this grand building incorporates the remains of an earlier tower house, its ancient stonework still visible to those who know where to look. The original structure’s presence is betrayed by several architectural clues: a subtle base batter along the north wall, punch-dressed quoins at the northwest corner, and most intriguingly, a blocked doorway at the western end of the north wall that once provided access to a barrel-vaulted chamber below.

The tower house, measuring approximately 14 metres from east to west and 13 metres from north to south, represents a common type of fortified residence built throughout Ireland during the late medieval period. These dimensions can be traced through the straight joints in the masonry and the termination points of the base batter, which mark where the original tower ends and later additions begin. The western jamb of the blocked doorway remains clearly visible, offering a tangible connection to the building’s earlier incarnation when it stood as an independent defensive structure.

Today, this medieval tower house forms an integral part of Louth Hall’s fabric, a perfect example of how Ireland’s architectural history often involves layers of building and rebuilding over centuries. Rather than demolishing the earlier structure, the mansion’s builders chose to incorporate it, creating a palimpsest of stone that tells the story of the site’s evolution from medieval stronghold to country house. The survival of these features, documented by architectural historians like Tempest and Bence-Jones, provides valuable insights into both medieval building techniques and the pragmatic approach to construction that characterised later periods of Irish architecture.