The Ordnance Survey Letters from 1839 documented these stories passed down through generations, and when surveyors mapped the area for the six-inch Ordnance Survey map that same year, they marked at least one structure as already lying in ruins. These tantalising references represent all that survives of what may have been substantial medieval fortifications.

The complete disappearance of Graiguealug Castle, or castles, isn’t unusual for Irish tower houses and fortified dwellings from the medieval period. Many such structures were deliberately demolished, their stones robbed for building materials over the centuries, or simply left to decay after being abandoned during the upheavals of the 17th century. The fact that local memory preserved knowledge of three separate castle sites suggests this was once an area of considerable strategic or economic importance, possibly controlling a river crossing or overlooking productive agricultural lands.

Archaeological surveys conducted for the County Carlow inventory in the early 1990s found no physical evidence of these structures, though the persistent oral tradition and historical map evidence confirm that substantial buildings once existed here. Without excavation, it’s impossible to know whether foundations or other below-ground features survive beneath the modern landscape. The site serves as a reminder of how much of Ireland’s medieval heritage has been lost, surviving only in placenames, old maps, and the memories of local communities.