The four-storey structure, measuring 10.58 metres in diameter, was home to the Keating family from at least 1542, when James Keating of Moorstown signed a petition to Henry VIII. The castle’s fortunes changed hands several times over the centuries; by 1640, it was mortgaged to Robert Cox, an English Protestant, though Richard Keating retained inheritance rights. Following the Cromwellian confiscations, the property passed to a Puritan named Godfrey Greene, marking the end of the Keating family’s association with their ancestral home.

The tower house showcases sophisticated defensive features typical of its era. Entry was originally gained via sixteen stone steps leading to a pointed doorway on the south face, complete with yett-holes for securing a heavy iron grille. The entrance lobby contained a murder hole overhead, allowing defenders to attack intruders from above, whilst a guard room with gun-loops provided covering fire for the entrance gateway. The main chambers on the first and second floors maintain the circular plan, though curiously, the third floor adopts an almost square layout. Each level was lit by round-headed windows flanked by gun-embrasures, and the first floor features an impressive dome-vaulted ceiling constructed using wicker-centring, a traditional building technique.

The castle bears witness to more recent history too; between 1918 and 1922, the local IRA unit removed the spiral staircase above the first floor after raising a tricolour on the parapet, ensuring Crown forces couldn’t easily reach and remove it. Today, visitors can still observe various architectural details including wall cupboards, a second-floor fireplace with a chamfered flat lintel, and garderobe chambers accessed via mural passages. The second floor was later repurposed as a dovecot, likely during the 18th or 19th century, whilst machicolations at parapet level and the remains of what may have been an adjoining structure on the western face hint at the castle’s evolution through the centuries.