The structures, roughly arranged around a 40-metre square courtyard, reveal how medieval Irish buildings were adapted and repurposed through the ages. What began as a 13th-century hall-house underwent a dramatic transformation in the 15th or 16th century, when it was converted into a fortified tower house with a bawn, a type of defensive wall that enclosed the complex. The addition of a gate-tower on the north side marked this shift from purely residential to defensive architecture, reflecting the turbulent times that required such fortifications.

The complex continued to evolve with changing needs and fashions. By the early 17th century, a new residential block was constructed in the southeast corner of the bawn, suggesting either an expansion of the household or a desire for more modern living quarters. The surviving section of the bawn wall, standing about 6 metres high and 1.65 metres thick, runs east from the gate-tower before turning south to connect with the 17th-century house. This substantial wall gives visitors a sense of the impressive scale and defensive capabilities of the original fortification.

The 19th century brought yet another chapter to this site’s long history. When the nearby Templehouse country house was built, the medieval complex was converted into a practical farmyard with servants’ quarters, showing how these ancient structures were often absorbed into working estates rather than abandoned. A particularly intriguing detail from this period is a 19th-century archway built into the bawn wall, which features a carved human head on the inside face of its keystone; this head is believed to date from the 15th or 16th century, likely salvaged from an earlier structure and incorporated into the newer construction, preserving a small but evocative piece of the site’s medieval past.