This strategic position along the steep-sided ridge, which runs roughly east to west, would have made the castle an imposing presence in the medieval landscape. Today, only fragmentary remains hint at what was once a substantial fortification.

Historical records provide tantalising glimpses of Dunegan’s former grandeur. The castle appears on the Down Survey map of Ballyloughloe parish from 1654-7, where the accompanying terrier describes “the ruines of a large castle and a large Bawne” at Dunegan. A bawn was a defensive wall that enclosed the castle grounds, typically including ancillary buildings and providing protection for livestock during raids. By 1837, the Ordnance Survey Fair Plan map shows the site annotated as “Dunegan Old Castle”, depicted as a long rectangular ruin oriented east to west.

Despite the historical documentation of both castle and bawn, time has not been kind to these structures. While the castle’s ruins can still be traced on the ridge, no visible surface remains survive of the large bawn mentioned in the 17th-century survey. The absence of these defensive walls, which once formed an integral part of the castle complex, speaks to centuries of stone robbing and natural decay that have gradually erased much of Dunegan’s physical presence from the landscape.