The site of Desmond Castle appears on the 1841 Ordnance Survey map as a circular dotted outline, marking where the Earl of Desmond allegedly sought sanctuary before his dramatic end. Today, visitors searching for grand ruins will find only a moss-covered heap of small stones, roughly six metres across, sitting on a semicircular green terrace carved into the hillside.

According to local tradition recorded by John O’Donovan in 1841, this modest ruin was known as the Earl’s Castle, where the ill-fated Earl of Desmond took shelter during his final desperate days as a fugitive. The earl, who led a major rebellion against English rule in Munster during the 1580s, was eventually tracked down and killed at nearby Glenageenty in 1583, ending one of the most significant uprisings in Irish history. The Ordnance Survey Name Books describe the castle’s position on a natural shelf about 40 metres wide, though they note that even by the 1840s, little remained of what must have been a hasty fortification rather than a grand stronghold.

The site serves as a poignant reminder of the Earl of Desmond’s final chapter; from powerful magnate to hunted outlaw, reduced to hiding in remote strongholds across Kerry’s rugged landscape. While the physical traces have all but vanished beneath moss and time, the location in the parish of Ballymacelligott, barony of Trughanacmy, continues to mark a significant moment in Ireland’s tumultuous history, when the old Gaelic order made its last stand against Tudor conquest.