When surveyors visited in the 1650s during Cromwell’s Civil Survey, they found ‘an old castle and bawne the walls onely standing’, already in ruins after years of abandonment. The property records from that time reveal a fascinating mix of owners, including Sir Nicholas White of Leaslipp in County Kildare, Marcus Magragh of Bleane in Upper Ormond, and Daniel Kennedy of Ballycregane; all listed as ‘Irish Papists’ in the Protestant administration’s careful accounting of Catholic landowners.

Today, even less remains of this once-fortified residence. In 1985, the castle met an ignoble end when it was bulldozed to provide building stone for a silage pit, a stark reminder of how quickly historical sites can vanish when preservation isn’t prioritised. Only a portion of the eastern wall still stands, though it’s barely recognisable as defensive architecture; the internal face has collapsed entirely whilst the external face is buried beneath a mound of clay and fallen masonry.

Among the rubble, careful observers can spot architectural fragments bearing the distinctive marks of punch dressing, a stone-working technique that would have given the castle’s surfaces their finished appearance. The lower section of a doorway remains in place, offering a tantalising glimpse of what once stood here. As for the bawn, the defensive wall that would have enclosed the castle’s courtyard and outbuildings, no trace remains above ground. The site now serves as a sobering example of Ireland’s vanishing medieval heritage, where centuries of history can be reduced to a pile of reusable stone in a matter of hours.