Gabriel Beranger’s 1776 drawing captures what was then still standing: a three-storey tower positioned at the southeastern corner of a walled enclosure. Just two years later, antiquarian Austin Cooper provided further detail during his visit, describing the structure as a tower house complete with a corner turret in the southeast. The castle had deep roots in the area, having been associated with the Woodcock family from the 13th through to the 16th century.

By 1860, however, this once-imposing fortification had been completely demolished, leaving no visible traces at ground level. The castle’s stones likely found new life in other local constructions, a common fate for abandoned medieval buildings whose dressed stone was too valuable to leave unused. Archaeological excavations conducted between 2006 and 2008, ahead of the Ballycoolin Road Realignment, uncovered tantalising hints of the castle’s former extent. While the dig revealed a structure that appeared to incorporate portions of the original gatehouse, no definite remains of the tower house itself were found.

The excavations confirmed what local historians had long suspected; that the castle’s stone had been systematically recycled after the structure fell into disuse during the 17th century. Today, visitors to the area will find no romantic ruins or crumbling walls to mark where Cappoge Castle once stood, yet its memory persists through the careful documentation of those who saw it standing and the archaeologists who continue to piece together its history from beneath the soil.