This was once the seat of the Barnwall family, with Sir Patrick Barnwall becoming the first Baron of Crickstown in 1623. By 1640, his descendant Sir Richard Barnwall had amassed considerable holdings here, owning 403 acres including a large commonage called Currahaeh. The Civil Survey of 1654-6 paints a picture of a substantial estate that had seen better days, recording ‘a castle and a stone house ruinous, a church, a mill, an orchard and 10 Tenements’ on the property. Sir Richard’s influence extended throughout the parish, encompassing the curiously named lands of Knavinstowne, Somerstowne, Soddorne and Blackbutter.

What survives today is the ground floor of a rectangular building, most likely a seventeenth-century house rather than the original castle mentioned in historical records. The structure stretches over 16 metres from north to south and about 5 metres east to west, though its northern wall has long since vanished. The building’s most striking feature is its barrel-vaulted ceiling, a testament to the substantial construction methods of the period.

The interior reveals two separate chambers, each with its own entrance on the eastern side, though a blocked doorway between them suggests they were once connected. The southern chamber, measuring roughly 5 by 3 metres internally, features windows on both its eastern and western walls. Its larger northern neighbour extends over 8 metres and has an additional doorway on the western wall. Curiously, there’s no evidence of stairs to upper floors or garderobes, those essential medieval toilets, which might support the theory that this was a relatively modest domestic building rather than a defensive structure.