Located southwest of an earlier cashel within a sprawling multiperiod field system, this modest tower house tells a story of changing fortunes and shifting allegiances. First recorded in 1574 as likely belonging to a cadet branch of the powerful O’Brien family, the castle had passed to Daniel O’Shanny, Dean of Kilfenora, by 1585. The upheavals of the 1641 rebellion saw it change hands again, this time to Timothy and Cornelius MacDonough, though they appear to have abandoned the property by 1678. When the antiquarian Eugene O’Curry visited in 1839, he found only ruins.

What remains today is a partial yet revealing glimpse into late medieval domestic architecture. The eastern portion of the tower house stands approximately 10 metres high, reaching to the second floor level, its walls built from coursed limestone atop a low platform. The surviving structure reveals sophisticated defensive and domestic features: a broken embrasure with wicker centring in its flat arch, a garderobe chute in the south wall, and evidence of a vaulted ceiling oriented east to west. The first floor preserves an intramural passage in the northeast angle, accessed through lintelled doorways, alongside elegant ogee-headed windows; one tall example with punch-dressed detailing in the north wall, and a smaller companion in the east. Corbels that once supported a machicolation at the southeast corner speak to the building’s defensive capabilities.

The architectural details become increasingly refined as the structure rises. At second floor level, though only the northeast angle survives, a small ogee-headed window displays delicate foliate patterns in its spandrels, suggesting that despite its modest size, Ballyshanny Castle was built with considerable attention to aesthetics. The building’s rubble-filled interior, undermined walls, and missing western section tell of centuries of neglect, yet enough survives to paint a picture of a small but well-appointed tower house that once commanded this corner of County Clare’s ancient landscape.