The castle remained in O’Brien hands until Brian and Teige O’Brien lost it following the 1641 rebellion. During the Cromwellian period from 1653 to 1658, Parliamentary troops garrisoned the castle and forcibly removed all native Irish inhabitants from within a one-mile radius. By the late 17th century, ownership had passed to the Butlers of Rossroe Castle, though the structure appears to have been abandoned by the mid-18th century; it notably doesn’t appear on Hely Dutton’s 1808 list of inhabited castles in County Clare.

The rectangular tower, measuring 13.5 metres north to south and 8.5 metres east to west, sits within a well-defined rectangular earthwork and showcases sophisticated defensive architecture typical of its era. Entry is through a pointed doorway in the north wall, still protected by its original yett (iron gate), which leads into a lobby defended by a murder hole above. The ground floor features a guardroom with a barrel-vaulted ceiling showing traces of wicker centring, whilst the main chamber contains corbels that once supported the ceiling beams. A spiral staircase in the northeast corner, illuminated by eleven window lights, provides access to all floors, with each level revealing increasingly elaborate domestic arrangements.

The upper floors demonstrate the transition from military to residential use, with the second floor featuring an intact ashlar fireplace complete with mason’s marks and enlarged windows in flat-arched embrasures. The third floor retains much of its original plaster work and is covered by a north-south vault, whilst garderobe chambers built into the walls on multiple floors speak to the everyday practicalities of castle life. The fourth floor’s elegant ogee-headed windows, including a twin-light example, reveal the later medieval taste for more refined architectural details. Though the wall-walk that once crowned the structure has not survived, the castle remains an impressive example of a late medieval Irish tower house, its ivy-covered walls still bearing witness to centuries of occupation, conflict, and eventual abandonment.