The site originally featured a tower house castle belonging to the MacClancy family, measuring approximately 11.5 by 9 metres. By 1990, this tower house had been significantly altered; its height reduced and converted into a thatched two-storey dwelling, though it stood in considerable ruin. Unfortunately, this surviving structure has since been demolished, and a farm shed now occupies the historic site.

Historical records paint a clearer picture of the castle’s former glory. The 1654-56 Civil Survey of Limerick documented that Connor Clancy of Ballybricken, described as an Irish Papist, owned the lands of Ballyvorneen, which contained ‘a lardge Castle bawen and orchard’. Down Survey maps from the same period depict the tower house castle with a two-storey house attached to one side, which may have been the precursor to Ballyvorneen House. This adjoining structure, likely added during the 17th century, represents the kind of architectural evolution common to Irish castles as they transitioned from defensive structures to more comfortable residences.

Ballyvorneen House itself, built around 1700 on the site of the earlier castle, survived into more recent times. The Ordnance Survey Name Books noted it as a two-storey property owned by the Gabbetts family and occupied by tenants, describing it as having a ‘decayed appearance’ whilst acknowledging its construction on the site of an old castle that had once been the seat of the Clancy chieftains. The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage provides further details, describing it as a detached two-storey house with a pitched slate roof, rendered walls, and square-headed window openings, accompanied by multiple outbuildings featuring various architectural elements including loop openings and segmental arches.