Located in the townland of Carrickmines Great, the castle appears on Rocque’s 1760 map of County Dublin, where it’s shown immediately west of a road traversing the stream towards what would become Carrickmines Bridge. The remains have been incorporated into post-1700 farm buildings, now marooned like an island between the M50 motorway and Glenamuck Road North, connected by modern concrete tunnels.

Archaeological excavations have revealed the castle’s sophisticated defensive system, which included multiple layers of protection. The site featured a double fosse and double bank along its northwest flank, whilst the southeastern enclosure boasted three sets of defences, or trivallate fortifications, with ditches cut into bedrock and sections revetted in granite extending 217 metres. This southeastern enclosure, likely the ‘bawn’ recorded in the Civil Survey of 1654-56, contained the foundations of what may have been a gate tower. The defensive system had three entrances: a revetted causeway in the northwest corner possibly equipped with a drawbridge, the gatehouse forming part of the stone-revetted fosse, and a staggered entrance on the south side crossing all three fosses, perhaps featuring a wooden gate tower.

The Civil Survey valued the castle ruins at ten pounds in the 1650s, noting it belonged to Theobald Walsh, a captain in the Irish Army, and functioned as a manor that held court leet, with tithes belonging to Christ Church Cathedral. Excavations have uncovered Saintonge pottery from 13th and 14th century France, suggesting the site’s medieval origins and connections to continental trade. Today, visitors can still see portions of the stone-revetted fosse wall extending beneath the Glenamuck Road overpass, though much of the surviving masonry is heavily overgrown with vegetation. The site represents a remarkable survival of medieval military architecture, albeit fragmented by modern infrastructure development.