According to a marginal note in the Laud Miscellany, the castle was built in 1452 by the son of Richard Butler, in the very year that James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond, died on St. Bartholomew’s Day. The rectangular limestone structure, measuring roughly 11.7 by 9.8 metres, rises three storeys with its distinctive pointed vault over the ground floor and a high barrel vault crowning the second floor, which now serves as the roof. The tower’s strategic position is evident from the surrounding medieval landscape; a ringwork and bailey castle lies 200 metres to the east, whilst a church and graveyard sit 170 metres to the west-south-west.

The tower house showcases typical defensive features of its era, entered through a pointed doorway on the western wall’s northern end, complete with yett holes for securing iron gates. Beyond this entrance, visitors would have encountered a lobby protected by an overhead murder hole, accessible from a concealed wall cupboard on the first floor. The ground floor chamber, lit by three cross-loops in different styles, contained storage cupboards built into the eastern wall. A mural staircase winds upward through the western and southern walls, providing access to the upper floors whilst incorporating defensive elements like opposing put-log holes that likely supported internal barricades at the second-floor landing.

The castle’s later history reveals continuous occupation and adaptation. The Civil Survey of 1654-56 records James, Earl of Ormond, as proprietor in 1640, noting “upon this land stands a good castle.” By 1707, William Barker of Kilcooley had taken up residence, likely adding the lean-to structure whose roof scar remains visible on the western wall. The first floor, once the main living quarters, featured three windows, a fireplace, and an L-shaped garderobe chamber with its chute exiting at the tower’s base. Though the upper storeys have partially collapsed, the surviving architecture reveals a sophisticated domestic fortress, complete with fireplaces, private chambers, and carefully positioned windows that balanced the need for light with defensive requirements.