Late 17th century artist Francis Place captured the structure in its better days, depicting a three storey tower house with a parapet level and an attached gabled building. By 1766, when artist Beranger sketched the site, the castle had fallen into ruin, its stone walls crumbling whilst thatched chambers clung to its sides like makeshift afterthoughts.

The castle’s most dramatic moment came during the Battle of Rathmines in 1649, when it played a role in one of the decisive engagements of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. The Fitzwilliam family, who held the castle from the 14th century, would have witnessed its transformation from medieval stronghold to battlefield position. Historical accounts from Grose in 1791 note that entrenchments surrounded the castle, suggesting it maintained some defensive importance even as Dublin grew around it.

By the early 1800s, the ruins of Baggotrath Castle met an unceremonious end; demolished completely to make way for new construction as Dublin expanded. Today, no trace of the castle remains visible above ground, its stones and stories buried beneath the modern streetscape. Where medieval lords once kept watch from the tower’s heights, Georgian and Victorian buildings now stand, leaving only historical drawings and archaeological records to tell the tale of this lost Dublin fortress.