The lands of Mawmayne, as it was known in 1296, were held by John FitzHenry through a knight’s fee from Valence, likely dating back to the earliest days of Anglo-Norman settlement in Ireland. By the mid-17th century, the Civil Survey records that Thomas FitzHaris possessed a ‘faire castle’ here along with 420 acres spanning the townlands of Mackmine, Kilgibbon, and what was probably Coolteige in Clonmore parish.

The tower house itself is a sturdy rectangular structure, measuring approximately 9 metres north to south and 7.65 metres east to west, with an external base batter on three of its four walls. Its ground floor features a distinctive north-south barrel vault, though much of the original medieval character has been obscured by later modifications, including a modern brick skin on the interior and external render. The original entrance was likely positioned near the northern end of the east wall, where a mural staircase still threads through the thick walls. Rising through the building via a newel stair in the southeast angle, visitors would have passed through pointed doorways to reach the upper floors, where original features like a garderobe with twin lights in the north wall and the remnants of a substantial fireplace in the west wall hint at the castle’s former grandeur.

The King family, who owned the castle from at least the early 18th century, likely added the Neo-gothic wings to the north and east, transforming the medieval fortress into something more befitting Georgian sensibilities. By 1862, ownership had passed to the Richards family, and following the First World War, the castle briefly served as home to a community of Belgian nuns before falling into abandonment. Today, the structure stands to its second storey with later brick additions forming a third floor and parapet complete with corner turrets; a patchwork of centuries that tells the story of conquest, adaptation, and eventual decline that characterises so many of Ireland’s medieval strongholds.