Historical records from the Civil Survey of 1654-6 reveal that the land belonged to John Butler, an Irish Catholic, in 1640, when the property featured a bawn (a fortified courtyard), a thatched house, and several cottages. The Butler family’s connection to this place stretches back even further; Theobald Butler is mentioned in the Ormond Deeds of 1561 in relation to ‘Cloghevrydy’. Curiously, whilst the Civil Survey meticulously documents the bawn and domestic buildings, it makes no mention of the tower house that once stood within the fortified walls, though remnants of the bawn wall can still be spotted to the southeast.

Today, only a fragment of the castle’s north wall survives, rising approximately 12 metres high with walls about 1.5 metres thick. This imposing limestone rubble structure, built without the typical defensive base batter, reaches up to what would have been the third floor. The ground level reveals little beyond a collapsed arched recess at the eastern end, whilst above it, a substantial wall slot suggests the former presence of supporting timbers. The first floor once boasted a stone vault, with a single-light window set within its springing on the north wall, allowing precious light into the fortified interior.

The upper levels hint at the castle’s original layout and circulation patterns. Evidence suggests the second floor was accessed through a doorway in the west wall, with door recesses surviving at both second and third-floor levels at the western end of the north wall, indicating a spiral staircase was likely tucked into the northwest corner. Windows punctuate the remaining wall at various levels; a flat-headed single light window sits within a segmental-headed embrasure at the second floor, whilst partial remains of another window embrasure can be traced at the eastern end of the third floor. These architectural details, recorded by the Ordnance Survey Letters in the 1840s and still visible today, offer tantalising glimpses into what was once a formidable defensive residence overlooking the wet lowlands below.