The castle sits on raised ground just 80 metres from the river, with the religious house of the Crutched Friars, also founded by de St. Michael in the thirteenth century, located 520 metres to the south along the same riverbank. The surrounding fields contain numerous archaeological earthworks that tell the story of this once formidable medieval stronghold.

Historical drawings from 1795 reveal that Woodstock Castle was once part of a much larger fortified complex, complete with a defensive bawn wall and multiple buildings that have since vanished. The drawing shows a single storey building extending from the southeast corner of the castle; today, only the roofline’s crease mark remains visible in the castle’s eastern wall render, along with some telltale red brick. The bawn wall, described in 1835 as having ‘a fine arched gateway’, featured a tall pointed entrance north of the castle’s main structure, possibly with a recessed arch to accommodate gates or even a drawbridge. A section of this impressively thick wall, measuring 1.7 metres across, still projects northward from the western end of the castle’s north wall.

The defended courtyard appears to have occupied the area north and east of the castle, with the bawn wall possibly connecting back to the building’s southeast corner. Photographs from different periods, including one by Robert French taken between 1865 and 1914, document the gradual deterioration of these defensive structures. What survives today are the remains of the rectangular hall house and fragments of the bawn wall, including the gateway opening that once faced towards the river. These earthworks in the surrounding fields, particularly those north of the castle, represent the ghostly footprints of buildings and fortifications that once made this riverside stronghold a significant feature of medieval Kildare’s landscape.