This late 16th or early 17th-century tower house sits centrally within a square bawn, offering sweeping views from the west-northwest to southwest, though rising ground limits visibility elsewhere. The castle appears on several Down Survey maps from 1655-6, including the barony map of Cranagh and parish maps of both Ballicallan and Canice, where records show it belonged to Robert Shea, noted as an “Irish Papist”, in 1640.

The rectangular three-storey structure measures approximately 5.45 metres north to south and 4.75 metres east to west internally, with walls about 1.3 metres thick. Built from relatively small, flat pieces of roughly coursed shale with larger quoin stones at the corners, the tower house has suffered considerable deterioration over the centuries. Today, only the south wall survives to second-floor level, whilst the east wall features a large breach in its middle and stands with the southern end of the west wall to first-floor height. The north wall has largely collapsed, leaving only its lower courses at a maximum height of 1.05 metres.

Though the entrance has been completely destroyed, it would originally have provided access to both the ground floor and a mural staircase that rose through the north wall. The castle’s defensive features remain visible throughout: flat-headed single-light windows pierce the south and west walls at ground level, whilst the first floor boasts a similar window in the south wall flanked by gun-loops on either side of its embrasure. Additional defensive elements include a gun-loop at the southern end of the west wall, two small loops in the southeast angle, and a garderobe chamber built into the east wall at first-floor level, its chute still visible at the southern end of that wall. These military features, particularly the gun-loops, firmly date the tower house to an era when such fortified residences balanced domestic comfort with defensive necessity.