This tower, perched on a cliff edge about 40 metres southeast of a later fortified house, is all that remains of the castle that originally occupied this strategic site. The surviving structure consists mainly of a south wall measuring 7 metres internally, with partial returns of the east wall at 3.2 metres and west wall at just 1.1 metres. Rising to approximately 5 metres in height despite a substantial breach in its centre, the south wall features a shallow projection at its western end containing a garderobe shaft and exit chute; telltale signs of its domestic function within the larger castle complex.

Historical records reveal this was once the seat of the Earls of Desmond, a powerful Anglo-Norman family who controlled vast swathes of Munster until their rebellion against English rule in the late 16th century. Following the failed Desmond Rebellion, the castle was forfeited to the Crown and likely demolished soon after to make way for the fortified house that now dominates the site. A detailed description from 1584 provides a tantalising glimpse of the castle in its final years: a two-storey hall with a vaulted ground floor, accessed by stone steps leading to a grand first-floor chamber measuring 60 by 26 feet beneath a high thatched roof. At the western end stood an impressive five-storey tower with vaulting over the third floor, all contained within a bawn and two courtyards.

The architectural arrangement described suggests a typical late-medieval tower house and bawn complex, though the inclusion of a stone-built vaulted hall was relatively unusual for the period; a similar feature can be found at Askeaton Castle in County Limerick. Archaeological evidence indicates the current ruins sit on earlier foundations, suggesting multiple phases of construction at this site. The surviving tower was most likely a mural tower incorporated into the bawn wall rather than the main residential tower described in the 1584 account, making it a fragment of the castle’s defensive perimeter rather than its principal structure.