The original name likely derives from the Tipperary family of Scadan or Hareng, with the Irish form being Béal Átha na Scadán, meaning “mouth of the ford of the herrings”. The site’s medieval origins can be traced back to 1229, when Richard de Burgo granted possession of Baliscadan to William de Marisco. By the mid-17th century, the castle belonged to John FitzGibbon, an Irish Catholic landowner who held the property in 1640.

The Civil Survey of 1655 paints a rather bleak picture of the estate, noting that FitzGibbon’s lands at Ballyscaddan contained “a Castle out of Repaire and a Mill seate”. The Down Survey terrier from around the same period similarly recorded “the Stumpe of a Castle & a few Cabbins” at Bealanescadane, suggesting the fortification was already in considerable decline. Following the Cromwellian confiscations, the lands were confirmed to John Ryves in 1667 under the Act of Settlement, which explains how the property acquired its later name of Ryves Castle.

The 18th century saw the construction of a new house on or near the original castle site, which became known as Castle Jane. By the time of the Ordnance Survey’s work in the 1840s, this building was being called Ryves Castle House, though the Field Name Books noted its former identity as Castle Jane. The historian Westropp, writing in 1906;7, expressed considerable doubt about the exact location of the original medieval castle, describing it as “a most doubtful site”. Today, the townland itself bears the name Ryves Castle, having replaced the earlier designation of Ballyscaddan, though the layers of history remain embedded in the landscape and local memory.