What visitors find today are silage pits and farm sheds, practical structures that belie the site’s grander history as the 17th-century residence of the Forth family. This transformation from castle to farmstead tells a familiar Irish story; one where grand estates gave way to working farms as centuries passed and fortunes changed.

The Forth family established themselves here during a turbulent period of Irish history, when control of land meant everything. Their castle would have been both a statement of power and a defensive necessity in the contested landscapes of 17th-century Ireland. Historical records, particularly Loeber’s comprehensive survey from 1988, confirm the family’s presence here, though little physical evidence of their original stronghold survives above ground.

Today’s agricultural buildings serve as unexpected monuments to the site’s continuing use through the centuries. Rather than being abandoned like so many Irish castles, Redwood evolved with the times, its stones likely recycled into farm buildings as the need for fortified residences declined. The silage pits and sheds, whilst mundane in appearance, represent the practical repurposing of historic sites that characterises much of rural Ireland’s archaeological landscape.