Though no visible traces survive today, historical records paint a picture of what once stood here: a castle perched atop a motte, as depicted in an early 1600s map of Granard barony now held in the British Library. This defensive structure, known in Latin as the ‘castr de Newton’, was likely an imposing sight on the local landscape.

The castle’s history took a dramatic turn in 1604 when its owner, Lyshagh Duffe O’Ferrall, was found guilty of treason through an Inquisition. This was a tumultuous period in Irish history, when Gaelic lords frequently found themselves at odds with the English Crown, often losing their ancestral lands through charges of rebellion. Following O’Ferrall’s conviction, the castle and its lands were seized by the Crown and subsequently granted to Mary, Lady Delvin and her son Sir Richard Nugent, Baron of Delvin, in 1605; a transfer that exemplified the plantation policies of James I’s reign.

Today, visitors to the site will find little evidence of this once-significant fortification. The motte that once supported the castle may still exist as a subtle rise in the landscape, though centuries of agriculture and natural erosion have erased most traces of the medieval stronghold. The castle’s story survives primarily through historical documents, including that intriguing early map showing the castle in its heyday, serving as a reminder of how much of Ireland’s built heritage has vanished, leaving only archival whispers of what once dominated the countryside.