Historical records place this fortification in existence by 1570, when it belonged to the Burke family of Castle Hackett. Just four years later, ownership had transferred to the McWalters sept, reflecting the turbulent nature of land ownership in 16th century Galway. Whilst early Ordnance Survey maps from the 19th century named the castle, they didn’t actually mark its location; it wasn’t until the 1920 edition that surveyors finally indicated where the structure once stood within the eastern sector of the enclosure.

Today, visitors to the site won’t find the castle ruins where the maps suggest they should be. Instead, the most visible remnant is a low, circular stony mound about eight metres across in the northern part of the enclosure, packed with chunks of old masonry. At its centre, there’s a roughly rectangular hollow measuring 3.5 metres north to south and 1.5 metres east to west, where keen observers can still make out faint traces of wall faces. This curious feature might actually be what the antiquarian Thomas Johnson Westropp described in 1919 as “slight traces of a mortar-built gateway”, though it oddly sits inside rather than on the line of the enclosure wall.

The site has been recognised for its historical importance and is protected under a preservation order from 1991. The archaeological details come from the comprehensive Archaeological Inventory of County Galway, compiled by Olive Alcock, Kathy de hÓra, and Paul Gosling in 1999, which meticulously documents North Galway’s rich archaeological heritage. Though little remains visible of this once-important castle, the site continues to offer tantalising glimpses into the complex political landscape of Tudor-era Connacht.