Though no visible traces remain above ground today, this location once held a fortification that played a role in the complex web of Anglo-Norman power in medieval Ireland. The castle originally belonged to the Barry family, one of the prominent Anglo-Norman dynasties who arrived in Ireland following the 12th-century invasion, before passing into the hands of the Roche family during the later Middle Ages.

Historical maps tell an intriguing story of the castle’s gradual disappearance. The Down Survey maps from 1655-6 clearly show a castle at this location, complete with a mill to the south, suggesting a thriving medieval settlement. Local memory preserved some trace of the structure well into the 19th century; Grove White recorded that a person born in 1824 could still remember seeing the castle’s remains. This oral tradition aligns with cartographic evidence, though the exact location seems to have shifted in different surveys. The 1842 Ordnance Survey map appears to place the castle about 120 metres east-southeast of where later maps from 1905 and 1937 marked it, roughly 10 metres west of the road.

The site represents a common fate for many of Ireland’s medieval castles, which have vanished from the landscape but left their mark in place names, local traditions, and historical records. The transfer from Barry to Roche ownership reflects the fluid nature of land control in medieval Cork, where Anglo-Norman families competed for territory and influence. Today, visitors to Caherduggan North will find only fields where this castle once stood, though the area’s archaeological significance remains documented in the Archaeological Inventory of County Cork.