The 1837 Ordnance Survey Fair Plan map marks it as an ‘Old castle’, positioned on a slight bend near a cluster of farm buildings, whilst the 1838 Ordnance Survey 6-inch map confirms a castle building at this location. According to the Ordnance Survey memoranda from the period, the ruins were well known locally, with residents attributing the fortress to this colourful historical character, though details about Red Charley himself remain frustratingly elusive.

By the late 20th century, the castle had completely vanished from the landscape. When archaeologists visited the site in 1979, they found no trace of the structure above ground; only the subtle remnants of old cultivation ridges running east to west across the gently sloping field offered any hint of past human activity. The field itself slopes upward towards the east, but of the castle that once commanded this position, nothing visible remained.

A return visit in 1982 revealed an even more dramatic transformation: a modern farmyard had been constructed directly over the historic site. The surveyors searched for any fragments of medieval masonry that might have been incorporated into the new farm buildings, a common practice in rural Ireland, but found none. Today, visitors to Ballycahillroe will find no physical evidence of the castle that once stood here; its story preserved only in old maps, local memory, and the carefully documented observations of those who came looking for it before it was lost entirely.