The castle complex began taking shape in 1611 when Archbishop Myler McGrath of Cashel started construction, having already gathered his materials at the site. The lands had been granted just a year earlier to James, the Archbishop’s son, and records from the period note that the Archbishop intended to speedily finish both a “prittie castle” and an accompanying bawn, or fortified courtyard.

The bawn itself is an impressive defensive structure, roughly L-shaped and measuring about 27 metres on each side. Built from coursed blocks and rubble stone mortared together, its walls connect to the northeast and southwest corners of the tower house. Two circular, two-storey towers once guarded the northeast and northwest corners, each accessible through lintelled doorways equipped with drawbar holes for security. Both levels of these defensive towers featured gun loops, whilst the main bawn walls were similarly fortified; the eastern wall alone had seven gun loops, and the western wall contained five. Archaeological evidence suggests the presence of a wall walk along parts of the structure, and traces of a shallow defensive ditch can still be seen outside the eastern and southeastern walls.

The castle’s promising beginnings came to an abrupt end during the Cromwellian campaign of 1649-50, when bombardment destroyed the north wall of the tower house, leaving it in ruins that persist to this day. What remains reveals fascinating details about 17th-century fortification: a small contemporary building once stood near the southern end of the western wall, a central gate pierced the northern wall, and a 4.3-metre-wide road, still delineated by rubble blocks, extends northward from this entrance for approximately 100 metres. The varying heights of the surviving walls, from 2.5 to 4 metres, along with features like the mysterious splayed opening at ground level in the eastern wall, continue to intrigue visitors and archaeologists alike.