The castle, once a residence of the Dillon family, was protected by a bawn wall; a fortified enclosure typical of Irish tower houses from the 15th to 17th centuries. Today, visitors can still trace the outline of this defensive structure through the remaining stone walls and footings that mark where buildings once stood on the artificially enhanced platform.

The site reveals layers of history in its stones. On the eastern side, a 25-metre-long stone wall faces what was once a built-up platform, while remnants of gun loops in a substantial three-metre-high wall section speak to the castle’s defensive capabilities. Medieval architectural fragments are scattered throughout the ruins of later farm buildings that encroach on the site; door and window frames, along with quoin stones bearing the characteristic rough pock marks of medieval masonry work. Just 60 metres to the north, a corn mill may have been built on the site of an earlier medieval mill, suggesting this location held strategic and economic importance for centuries.

The castle’s documented history provides a glimpse into the changing ownership patterns of 17th-century Ireland. In 1621, following the Flight of the Earls and subsequent plantation policies, the castle and its extensive lands passed from Irish to English hands when Sir William Parsons received a grant for “the bawn, one stone hall, one orchard, one water-mill and one carucate of land”. This transfer marked a significant shift in the area’s social and political landscape, transforming what had been a Gaelic stronghold into part of the new English administrative system in Ireland.