Built sometime before 1470 when the Hay family held it, the castle passed to the Cheevers family by 1543, who owned it until their forfeiture in 1654. The Civil Survey records George Cheevers owning 200 acres here, along with a share in nearby Ballycullen, probably modern Ballykilliane. After the 1660s, the castle went to Francis Harvey, a Wexford merchant, and remained with the Harvey family well into the late 19th century. They adapted the medieval structure in the 18th century, adding a three-storey house to the eastern side that remains occupied today.

The tower house itself measures 11.7 by 8.45 metres externally, with battered walls topped by crenellated battlements and corner lookout platforms. The original northeast entrance, now blocked, featured a murder hole operated from the second floor, whilst a mural stairway winds through the thick walls connecting all five levels. Each floor served distinct purposes: the ground floor with its double-splayed arrow loops for defence; the first floor beneath a barrel vault; the second floor containing the main living space with fireplace and garderobe; the third floor with its elegant ogee-headed windows and seats; and the fourth floor leading to the wall walk. The lookout platforms at the angles rest on pillars, allowing defenders to pass beneath on the battlements, whilst a bellcote and carved face peer out from the eastern platform.

The tower house anchors the western corner of a substantial bawn measuring 34 by 25 metres internally, though only the southwest and southeast walls survive to their full height of nearly 7 metres. A round-arched gateway in the southwest wall, protected by machicolation above, provided the main entrance to the enclosure, with stairs leading to the wall walk. Corner towers rise from the battlements at the southern angle and eastern corner, the latter a circular tower about 3.5 metres in diameter. Gun loops pierce the parapet of the southeast wall, whilst inscribed stones dated 1693 and 1730 built into the bawn walls likely commemorate later repairs. A chapel once stood 100 metres east of the castle, and a holy well survives about 80 metres to the southeast, remnants of the wider medieval settlement at Killiane.