This unremarkable field near Clonkeen was once home to a stone castle and fortified bawn, built in the late 16th century by Captain Henry Colley. In April 1569, the Crown granted Colley the land on the condition that he construct these defensive structures, part of the Tudor strategy to secure and colonise Irish territories during a particularly turbulent period.

The castle appears to have stood for nearly two centuries, with a 1744 map clearly marking it as an occupied building. However, by the time Taylor created his detailed survey of County Kildare in 1783, the structure had vanished from the cartographic record. When the Ordnance Survey visited the area in 1837, they could only document local memories; residents pointed out where the castle once stood, though no physical traces remained above ground.

Today, visitors to this spot roughly 190 metres west of River Bridge will find nothing but peaceful farmland on the low north;south ridge. Yet local tradition still preserves the memory of what once stood here, a reminder that Ireland’s landscape is layered with invisible histories. Archaeological records compiled by researchers like Gearóid Conroy help ensure these phantom monuments aren’t entirely lost to time, even when stones and mortar have long since disappeared.