Built from stone and clay, this defensive structure was documented by historian Davies in 1948, who placed it on an old road just below the hill’s summit. Bawn walls were fortified enclosures that protected plantation castles and their inhabitants during a period when English and Scottish settlers were establishing themselves on confiscated Irish lands, often in hostile territory.

The exact location of Castlepoles Castle itself remains something of a local mystery. Whilst Davies’s archaeological survey identified one spot for the bawn wall, local tradition insists the castle proper stood about 85 metres west-southwest of that location. This discrepancy between academic records and community memory isn’t uncommon in Irish archaeology, where centuries of land use changes, demolition for building materials, and the passage of time have obscured many historical sites.

Today, visitors to either proposed location will find no visible traces of these structures above ground. The stone and clay that once formed defensive walls have long since been reclaimed by the landscape or repurposed by generations of local farmers. What remains is the place name itself; Castlepoles, a linguistic fossil that hints at the fortified past of this quiet Cavan hillside, preserved in maps and memory even as the physical structures have vanished.