Where the Ordnance Survey maps once marked a castle, visitors today will find only gentle rises and falls in the ground with no clear pattern, though a level area measuring roughly 20 metres east to west and 16 metres north to south sits immediately to the south. This flat section, scarped on its southern edge and cut into the northern slope, may be the remnants of an old garden feature associated with the castle grounds.

The castle itself was a Fitzgerald stronghold, one of many fortifications built by this powerful Norman-Irish family who dominated much of Munster from the medieval period onwards. The Fitzgeralds, who arrived in Ireland during the Norman invasion of the 12th century, established a network of castles throughout Cork and the surrounding counties, using them to control trade routes and agricultural lands whilst defending their territories from rival families and English crown forces.

The destruction of Ballymacsimon Castle reads like something from a penny dreadful. According to Waters’ 1916 account, the castle met its end not through siege or warfare but at the hands of an overzealous treasure hunter in the early 19th century. This individual, driven by dreams of hidden wealth, managed to completely demolish the structure in a single night through undermining; essentially digging beneath the foundations until the entire castle collapsed. Whether any treasure was actually found remains unrecorded, but the castle that had likely stood for centuries was reduced to the earthworks visible today.