The site first appears on the Down Survey barony maps from 1656 to 1658, where it’s marked simply as “a house at Maine” close to the river. These maps, created during the Cromwellian period as part of Ireland’s first systematic land survey, provide some of the earliest documentary evidence of structures that once dotted the Irish countryside.

Local memory has preserved what official records have not. According to folklore collected by the Irish Folklore Commission’s Schools’ Manuscript Collection, residents speak of a castle that once stood in what’s now known as either the ‘Pier Field’ or ‘Cul Cille’. These field names themselves carry historical weight; ‘Cul Cille’ translates from Irish as ‘back of the church’, suggesting the castle may have had ecclesiastical connections or simply stood near a religious site. Such oral traditions, passed down through generations, often preserve details that written records overlook.

The exact location of the castle remains elusive, a common fate for many of Ireland’s lesser fortifications. What survives is a combination of cartographic evidence and community memory, both pointing to a structure that was significant enough to merit inclusion on 17th century maps yet has since vanished from the physical landscape. Whether it was destroyed during the tumultuous years of the Cromwellian conquest, abandoned as fashions changed, or simply succumbed to time and weather, the castle at Maine now exists primarily in field names and stories, waiting for archaeological investigation to perhaps one day reveal its foundations.