The exact spot remains frustratingly elusive; somewhere about 800 metres north of the house, on the western side of a stream, the fortress left its mark on the landscape even as its stones have long since vanished. When the historian Bowman visited in 1934, he could find no one who could tell him much about the castle’s history, noting only that some remains had apparently survived into the 1920s before disappearing entirely.

This lost stronghold at Kilcolman represents one of countless forgotten castles that once dotted the Irish countryside, their stories dissolving into the mist of time. Without excavation or further documentary evidence, we can only speculate about who built it, when it was constructed, or what role it played in the complex tapestry of medieval Cork. The castle likely dated from the Anglo-Norman period, when such fortifications sprang up across Munster as colonial lords sought to control their newly acquired territories.

Today, visitors to the area would find little evidence of the castle’s existence beyond the field’s suggestive name. The Archaeological Inventory of County Cork, compiled in 2000 and updated in 2009, preserves what little is known about the site, serving as a reminder that beneath Ireland’s green fields lie centuries of hidden history, waiting to be rediscovered or, perhaps, lost forever to time and memory.