According to historical records, a house now stands where the castle once dominated the landscape, with the original fortification appearing on a 1587 map under the intriguing name ‘Longeforde’. Whilst the area is known today as Aghada, meaning Acadh Fhada or ‘the Long Field’ in Irish, the older name Longeforde likely derives from ‘longphort’, a term used to describe Viking naval camps. This linguistic fossil points to a much earlier Norse presence in the area, with the name still surviving at the nearby Long Point.

The castle’s appearance on late 16th-century maps suggests it held strategic importance during the tumultuous Tudor period, when English control over Irish territories was being consolidated through a network of fortifications. The transformation from Viking longphort to medieval castle, and eventually to a domestic dwelling, mirrors the broader patterns of settlement and conquest that shaped Ireland’s coastal regions over the centuries.

Today, visitors to the area can trace these historical layers through place names and archaeological remains, though the original castle structure has long since vanished. The site serves as a reminder of how Ireland’s landscape has been continuously reshaped by waves of settlers, from Viking raiders establishing naval bases along the coast to Anglo-Norman lords building castles to control their new territories, each leaving their mark in the names and stones of places like Aghada.