When surveyors examined the ruins in 1840, they found a substantial tower house measuring 27 feet by 18 feet, rising to an impressive height of 40 feet with walls four feet thick. The structure originally comprised three storeys, with the ground floor featuring stone vaulting beneath, whilst a square tower at the northwest corner extended another twelve feet above the main walls. During repairs in 1838, workers discovered a stone inscribed with the date 1149, though the castle’s architectural style suggests it was more likely built as a fortified residence during the later medieval period.

The Berkeley family, who anglicised their name variously as Barkly, Bricklea, and Byrkley over the centuries, held this stronghold from at least 1281. Their tenure wasn’t always peaceful; records from 1336 mention Brian Duff O’Brien ravaging their lands, whilst the family simultaneously maintained significant influence in Limerick city, with several members serving as mayors and sheriffs between the 14th and 17th centuries. The castle passed through generations of Berkeleys until 1655, when Francis Barkly sold it to George Peacock, marking the end of nearly four centuries of continuous family ownership.

Today, the castle presents itself as a Type 2 tower house, distinguished by its turret projections at the north end of the west wall and the west end of the south wall. Though the interior is now inaccessible, remnants of a large east window at the second storey level can still be seen, along with surviving portions of the gable and wall walk on the north end. The neighbouring Ballycahane House, built sometime before 1840 as a modest two storey residence for Reverend E. Connery, provides a stark contrast to the medieval fortification, embodying the shift from defensive architecture to more comfortable domestic dwellings that characterised Ireland’s transition into the modern era.