The structure appears on the Down Survey maps from 1686-8, marked as being in the possession of Sir Richard and Christopher Nugent at that time. These detailed maps, created as part of the massive land redistribution that followed the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, provide one of the few documentary records of this now vanished fortification.

The castle was possibly constructed during the Cromwellian Settlement period by Thomas Burton, though the exact circumstances of its building remain uncertain. The Settlement, which took place in the 1650s, saw extensive changes in land ownership across Ireland as Cromwell’s supporters were rewarded with confiscated estates. The transfer of the property to the Nugent family by the time of the Down Survey suggests the typical pattern of ownership changes that characterised this turbulent period in Irish history.

Today, the precise location of the castle remains a mystery, with only folk memory and historical maps to attest to its former existence. The site represents one of many lost structures from Ireland’s complex past; buildings that played their part in the country’s story before disappearing entirely from the landscape. The Down Survey maps, now digitised and freely available online, offer a fascinating glimpse into this vanished world of 17th century Ireland, preserving the locations of castles, churches, and settlements that have long since crumbled away.