What remains are the battered north and east walls at ground level, including the base of a garderobe chute on the northern face. The structure is now overlooked from the west, a reversal of its original defensive position.

A photograph from around 1926 captures the tower house shortly before its collapse that same year, revealing a three-storey structure with a rounded vault over the first floor. The western wall had already fallen by then, but the image shows distinctive recessed, gable-shaped gun loops on the north face; architectural features that speak to its military purpose. These defensive elements would have been crucial during the tower’s most dramatic chapter in 1601, when Spanish forces garrisoned this O’Driscoll clan stronghold during their involvement in the Nine Years’ War.

The castle’s strategic location at Castlehaven made it a valuable asset for the O’Driscolls, one of the most powerful maritime clans in West Cork. Though time and weather have reduced it to scattered stones and partial walls, the ruins continue to mark this historically significant site where Irish clan politics, Spanish military ambitions, and English colonial power once intersected at the dawn of the 17th century.