These defensive walls, once crucial for protecting tower houses and their inhabitants, now exist only in fragments. The surviving sections consist of rubble limestone construction with a subtle base batter, reaching heights of up to 3.5 metres along the eastern side. Time and practical needs have taken their toll; portions of the southern wall appear to have been incorporated into later farm buildings, whilst the western sections have been levelled entirely.

The term ‘bawn’ comes from the Irish word ‘bábhún’, meaning cattle enclosure, though these fortified walls served a far more defensive purpose during Ireland’s turbulent medieval and early modern periods. Typically built between the 15th and 17th centuries, bawns provided crucial protection for livestock, crops, and people during raids. They were particularly common in areas of English and Scottish settlement, where isolated landowners needed defendable spaces around their tower houses and fortified homes.

Today, tracing the original extent of the Kilberry bawn requires a keen eye and some imagination, as its full footprint is no longer clearly visible at ground level. What remains offers a tangible connection to Ireland’s complex history of settlement, conflict, and agricultural life. These intermittent stone sections, though fragmentary, represent the kind of everyday fortification that once dotted the Irish landscape; practical structures born of necessity rather than grand architectural ambition.