Located about 30 metres east of the local church and graveyard, this site appears in the 1996 Record of Monuments and Places simply as ‘Castle, site’. What makes it particularly intriguing is its placement within what may have been a much older ecclesiastical enclosure, suggesting centuries of continuous occupation and reuse of this strategically positioned spot.

The historian Carrigan documented the castle’s foundations in 1905, describing them as sitting within the interior of a large ‘rath’, the Irish term for a ringfort. When archaeologists inspected the site in 1989, they identified a raised area measuring roughly 12 metres north to south and 10 metres east to west in the southern section of the possible ecclesiastical enclosure. These modest dimensions suggest this was likely a tower house rather than a sprawling fortress; a common defensive structure built by Anglo-Norman and Gaelic Irish families throughout medieval Ireland.

The site exemplifies how Ireland’s historical landscapes often contain multiple periods of occupation in a single location. The possible ecclesiastical enclosure may date back to the early medieval period, whilst the castle foundations likely represent later medieval activity when local lords needed fortified residences. Today, whilst the castle exists only as subtle earthworks in good grassland, its proximity to the still-standing church creates a tangible link between Farrantemple’s medieval past and its present community.