The original fortification appears on the Down Survey of 1655-6, that remarkable cartographic project undertaken to redistribute Irish lands following the Cromwellian conquest. Built by Pierce Fitzgerald, the castle represented the kind of defensive residence typical of Anglo-Norman and Old English families who had established themselves across the Irish midlands.

The castle’s demise came at the hands of Oliver Cromwell’s forces, part of the systematic destruction of Irish fortifications that could potentially harbour resistance to the new Protestant order. Like many Irish castles of the period, Belan fell victim to the policy of rendering such strongholds militarily useless; its walls were likely breached with gunpowder and its defensive features demolished beyond repair. What remained after Cromwell’s attentions would have been a romantic ruin, the kind of ivy-covered stonework that dotted the Irish countryside for centuries.

The story doesn’t quite end with Cromwell though. A later Belan House was constructed on or near the site, presumably incorporating whatever remained of the medieval structure into a more modern residence. This too met an ignominious end when it was levelled in the 1960s, taking with it the last physical traces of the Fitzgerald castle. Today, visitors to the site would find no visible remains of either building; centuries of history reduced to entries in archaeological surveys and local memory, compiled by researchers like Gearóid Conroy who work to preserve what knowledge remains of these lost landmarks.