This roughly square platform, measuring about 40 metres on each side, is encircled by an impressive defensive system consisting of a wide fosse, approximately 18 metres across, and a formidable outer earthen bank standing 1.8 metres high. The fosse, now dry and partially filled in on the southern side, along with breaks in the inner bank to the north and eastern scarp, hint at the site’s complex history. The interior, though heavily overgrown with an uneven surface scattered with fallen trees, still reveals intriguing features including a circular stone-lined depression in the northwest corner, measuring 3.6 metres in diameter and 1.4 metres deep.

This is the site of Gynes Castle, built by Ralph de Guines who died in 1280. By 1656, a survey declared the castle ‘ruinous’, but remnants of its structure persist. In the northeast quadrant, where the 1937 Ordnance Survey map marked the castle’s location, a roughly square area of eight metres on each side shows evidence of stone walling; the southern side features a wall section measuring 3.2 metres long and 1.2 metres high, whilst the western side reveals the outer face of a single course of walling extending for about four metres.

The site holds curious local legends and historical oddities. In 1892, a historian described a brick-arched recess with finely cut stone stairs, known as ‘Capel’s Hole’ after Captain Joseph Capel of Cloghroe House, whose body reportedly lay there for a day and night according to his final wishes. This feature was said to be in the southeast corner, though no trace remains visible today. Even more intriguingly, accounts tell of a stone chair facing northwest, supposedly one of those ancient seats where chieftains were enthroned, located near the centre of the interior. The 1842 Ordnance Survey map identified the site as a graveyard, adding another layer to this multi-period monument’s fascinating story.