The Down Survey map from 1655-6 shows this substantial structure as a large, gable-fronted, two-storey building set within a square enclosure known as a bawn; a defensive wall typical of plantation-era fortified houses in Ireland. These maps, created following the Cromwellian conquest, provide some of our best evidence for buildings that have disappeared entirely from the physical landscape.

By 1986, when archaeologists visited the site, all that remained was a level platform on the brow of a low hill, bounded by a scarp on the northwest, north and east sides. The house itself had left no visible trace above ground, its stones likely robbed for other building projects over the centuries; a common fate for abandoned structures in rural Ireland. The platform and scarps hint at the defensive position chosen by the original builders, who would have had clear views across the surrounding countryside from this elevated spot.

Archaeological testing carried out in 2004 to the northeast of the site yielded no evidence of 17th-century settlement, suggesting that whatever remains of the fortified house lie elsewhere within the enclosure, or that the structure was thoroughly dismantled. The site remains an intriguing reminder of Longford’s plantation history, when fortified houses dotted the landscape as both homes and defensive structures for new settlers in what was often hostile territory.