The site, recorded in the Civil Survey of 1654-56, once held ‘a small castle wanting repaire’ belonging to George Comyn of Ballyvadin, noted as an ‘Irish Papist’ in the colonial records. Though the castle itself has long since vanished, aerial photography from 1974 revealed the ghostly outline of its rectangular bawn, or fortified courtyard, marked by cropmarks and field boundaries that still shape the landscape today.

The western portion of this historic enclosure remains visible to those who know where to look. A series of earthen scarps define what were once defensive walls; the western side rising about a metre high and stretching nearly 60 metres, whilst shorter sections mark the northern and southern boundaries. Along the southern edge, a fosse or defensive ditch still cuts into the earth, measuring roughly 2.5 metres wide at its base and nearly a metre deep. An outer bank, now modified and planted with whitethorn saplings, runs alongside it. The entire interior sits noticeably higher than the surrounding fields, earning it the local name ‘castle yard’.

The Down Survey maps of 1655-58 place Ballyvadin Castle somewhere within this vicinity, though its exact location remains tantalisingly uncertain. Local memory holds that when the eastern field was levelled for agriculture, substantial amounts of masonry were uncovered where the castle was believed to have stood. About 20 metres south of the bawn lies another intriguing feature; a possible earlier enclosure marked by the scant remains of a curvilinear bank running east-north-east to south-east, suggesting this corner of Tipperary may have been a significant settlement long before the Comyns built their castle.