Now a National Monument, this impressive structure was likely built by the Burke family around 1630, possibly on or near the site of an earlier castle. The rectangular building stretches 19 metres from east-northeast to west-southwest and spans 10.5 metres in width, rising through three storeys above a basement level.

The house’s defensive character is evident in its carefully designed features. The main entrance sits at first-floor level on the south wall, tucked into the western side of a deeply recessed central bay, whilst a pointed arch doorway at ground level on the north wall shows evidence of once having a yett, a type of defensive iron gate, judging by a perforation in its western jamb. The ground-floor windows are particularly telling of the building’s dual purpose as both home and fortress; each single-light window sits within a deep embrasure flanked by musket loops. Upper floors are lit by more conventional flat-headed mullioned windows with two or three lights. Three machicolations, defensive openings through which defenders could drop objects on attackers below, are positioned strategically at parapet level on the southeast and southwest corners, with a third commanding the north doorway.

Though the internal floors have long since vanished, traces in the surviving plasterwork reveal that stairs were centrally placed within the building. Fireplaces warmed each floor at both the east and west gables, topped by distinctive clusters of five diagonally arranged chimneys. The original roof consisted of two parallel gabled ridges running north to south, connected by a cross ridge. The house was once enclosed by a protective bawn wall, though only a section of the western wall remains, measuring over 18 metres long, one metre wide and three metres high, along with the foundations of a circular turret at the southeast corner, approximately 5.7 metres in diameter.