The site occupies a dramatic position at the edge of a steep precipice that drops sharply to the south and west, offering commanding views across the surrounding landscape. Historical records from the Civil Survey of 1654-6 describe how the castle appeared in 1640: ‘an old stone house covered with thatch within a bawne’, then owned by Theobald Butler. Even by that time, the structure was considered old, suggesting its sixteenth-century origins stretch back even further into Ireland’s turbulent past.

The bawn itself forms an irregular rectangular enclosure measuring roughly 40.5 metres north to south and 22.35 metres east to west. Rather than following a strict geometric plan, the walls adapt to the rocky terrain; the house forms the southwest angle, whilst the southeast corner curves upward towards the northeast angle instead of forming a sharp corner. The western wall remains the best preserved section, standing up to 4.4 metres high and featuring defensive elements including musket loops of varying designs. One narrow loop measures just 0.47 metres wide, whilst a wider-mouthed example spans 0.88 metres across, demonstrating the evolution of defensive architecture as firearms technology advanced.

At the northeast angle stands a roughly circular tower, likely built around the natural bedrock and later keyed into the existing bawn wall. Though it appears six metres tall from the outside due to the sloping ground, the interior reveals a two-storey structure of five metres. The tower could be entered from the southwest at both ground and first-floor levels, with the ground floor featuring three embrasures for musket loops facing northeast, east, and southeast. The upper level was more heavily defended with five embrasures covering the northwest, north, northeast, east, and southeast approaches. Small put-log holes, about 0.2 metres in diameter, once held the wooden timbers that supported the first floor, showing how timber and stone construction methods were combined in these frontier fortifications.