The motte was likely constructed around 1185 by Henry De Lion (later anglicised to Dillon), who arrived in Ireland that year as secretary to John, Earl of Morton, the future King John. De Lion received extensive grants of land that had belonged to the Irish chieftains MacCarron, Mac Geoghegan and O’Melaghlin, territory that required the service of 60 knights to maintain. These lands became known as Dillon’s Country and would later form the barony of Kilkenny West during Henry VIII’s reign.

The strategic importance of this location is evident from its surroundings; Drumraney church and graveyard lie 300 metres to the south, with a holy well 215 metres to the southeast. The Dillons established both a castle and church here at what became the heart of their territory. By 1659, the Down Survey map shows Drumraney Castle standing beside the medieval highway from Athlone to Dublin, though whether this stone castle replaced the earlier motte or stood elsewhere on the estate remains uncertain. The castle was one of nine recorded in the parish at that time, underlining the militarised nature of this frontier region. The nearby Drumraney House, which once stood immediately southwest of the motte before being converted to a Constabulary Barracks and eventually demolished, may have been built on the site of the later medieval castle.

Today, the motte survives as a steep-sided, sub-circular mound of earth and stones with an uneven summit that shows signs of disturbance over the centuries. A single tall tree crowns the top of the mound, whilst farm buildings have been built into its southwestern base and a laneway cuts across from east to north. No trace remains of the defensive ditch that would typically have encircled such a fortification, nor is there evidence of an adjoining bailey where the garrison and their horses would have been quartered. Despite these modifications, the mound remains an imposing reminder of the Anglo-Norman conquest and the transformation of the Irish midlands in the late twelfth century.