The site’s most distinctive feature is a gun tower, originally built as part of the defensive bawn walls, which was later converted into a dovecote when the adjacent Rathconnell Court was constructed in the 19th century. The circular tower, with interior diameter of 2.43 metres and walls 0.7 metres thick, sits just 95 metres north of Rathconnell Church and graveyard, and a mere 30 metres from the site of the original Rathconnell Castle.

The gun tower appears to have been constructed into the eastern side of what may be an even older Anglo-Norman motte castle, adding another layer to the site’s complex history. Two flat-headed doorways now provide access to the tower; one on the east and another on the southeast that seems to have been a window before its conversion. At ground level, where the bawn wall meets the tower, a gun loop measuring 0.5 by 0.4 metres internally provided flanking fire along the north wall’s external face, a reminder of the structure’s original defensive purpose. The upper level reveals its later life as a dovecote, with stone-built nesting holes carefully inserted into the walls to house pigeons.

When surveyor Thomas Fanning visited in 1976, he noted that whilst the lower courses of the tower appeared original, complete with curtain loops, the upper sections with their crenellations in folly style were likely contemporary with Rathconnell Court. Today, the court itself lies in ruins, but evidence of the site’s evolution remains visible in the masonry; a straight joint in the north wall marks where 19th century builders attached their courtyard wall to the earlier bawn structure. Between the court and the bailey, stone and earth banks along with shallow depressions hint at the castle’s former extent, whilst the motte’s summit preserves its level platform to the north and raised mound to the south.