The castle’s history saw it pass through various hands; John Fitzpatrick occupied it in 1601, followed by Peter Buckley in 1665 and the Vicars family towards the close of the 1600s. Also known as Garranmaconly, meaning ‘the Grove of the Son of Conghalach’, the tower suffered significant damage around 1863 when its north and east walls collapsed to the foundations, though the remaining walls stayed intact.

The rectangular limestone structure measures 10.5 metres east to west and 8.3 metres north to south, built from roughly coursed rubble likely quarried from a site to the northwest. Its defensive features once included a projecting garderobe tower in the north wall and an entrance tower at the northwest angle, though the latter has completely collapsed. The tower house rises through multiple floors, each accessed via spiral stairs that were originally located at the northwest corner. The second and third floors featured fireplaces set into the north wall, with the third floor’s example displaying a fine Tudor arch with chamfered edges. Windows throughout the building range from single round-headed lights to twin-light rectangular openings, some retaining their original iron bars.

The tower’s military architecture is particularly evident in its upper levels, where a rectangular mural chamber on the third floor commands a double machicolation bristling with musket loops, functioning like a bartizan. The attic level once gave access to a wall walk that ingeniously passed through the interior of a large chimney stack via corbels, connecting to a circular bartizan at the northeast angle. Though much of the parapet has been lost, these surviving details paint a picture of a formidable defensive residence that combined domestic comfort with military practicality, typical of Irish tower houses of its era.