This rectangular enclosure, measuring 52 metres northwest to southeast by 45 metres northeast to southwest, once protected a castle that stood at its centre. The defensive earthen bank that forms its perimeter, though now largely worn down and overgrown, still reaches heights of 1.5 metres in places, particularly along the southwestern side where it has best survived the centuries.

The bawn’s defences were once more formidable, with a fosse (defensive ditch) along the northwestern side, now filled in but still traceable, and natural water features providing additional protection; a field drain runs along the southwest whilst a stream curves around the northeast and southeast boundaries. Two stone causeways spanning these water features serve as entrances, one crossing the stream at the northern end and another bridging the drain to the south. Whilst these crossings, measuring 3.5 and 4.2 metres wide respectively, have been modified over time, their stone retaining walls may well be original features.

The site’s history is as complex as its physical remains. According to William Carrigan’s 1905 historical survey, this was once Cappagh Castle, an ancient manor that included the lands of Newtown and Fowlingrath (now Holdensrath), before being forfeited by Henry Archer, described as an “Irish Papist”, in 1653 during the Cromwellian confiscations. The confusion over its location adds another layer of intrigue; originally marked in Cappagh townland on the first Ordnance Survey maps of 1839-40, administrative boundary changes meant that by the 1945-6 revision, both castle and bawn had officially shifted into neighbouring Lacken townland without moving an inch.