This fortified complex served as the principal residence of the Sutton family, whose roots in Ireland trace back to Roger de Sutton’s arrival with Robert Fitzstephen in 1170. By the early 14th century, the Suttons had established themselves as substantial landowners in the area, with John Sutton holding Ballybrazil and surrounding lands by knight’s fee in 1307. The family’s prominence continued for generations; when William Sutton died in 1569, he possessed extensive estates throughout the region, and his widow Joan was counted among Wexford’s wealthiest residents, maintaining a household of 225 dependents when listed for transportation to Connaught in 1653.

The castle remains reveal a sophisticated defensive structure consisting of a rectangular bawn measuring approximately 28.5 metres north to south and 22 metres east to west. At the southeast corner once stood a circular tower, 6.35 metres in diameter, which sadly collapsed during the 1970s. This tower featured a corbelled ground floor chamber accessed through a pointed doorway, with mural stairs winding clockwise to the first floor and continuing anticlockwise to at least two upper levels. The northwest corner houses a better-preserved rectangular flanking tower, measuring 4 metres by 3.2 metres internally, which rises through three storeys topped with a parapet. Curiously, this tower lacks internal stairs between floors, relying instead on trapdoors and external access from the bawn’s wall-walks.

The defensive capabilities of the complex are evident in its numerous gun-loops and musket loops, particularly concentrated in the rectangular tower where at least eight such openings once commanded the surrounding approaches. Along the western side of the bawn, the remains of a two-storey house survive partially, with distinctive projecting fireplaces on both the south and west gables suggesting a 17th-century construction date, whilst the defensive elements of the bawn likely date to the 16th century or earlier. Just 200 metres to the north-northeast stands the parish church of Ballybrazil, linking this military stronghold to the broader medieval landscape of the area.