Built by Hugh de Lacy in 1211, this imposing earthwork fortress met its end just fifteen years later when Cathal O’Reilly dismantled it between 1224 and 1226, marking a brief but significant chapter in the region’s medieval power struggles.

The castle’s motte rises approximately eight metres high, a steep-sided artificial hill with a flattened summit measuring roughly 26 by 18 metres. At its base, the mound spans about 48 metres from north-northwest to south-southeast, separated from its crescent-shaped bailey by a wide, deep defensive ditch. The entire complex is enclosed by a well-defined fosse and substantial earthen bank, though portions along the northeastern to eastern sections have been levelled over time. These defensive earthworks would have originally supported wooden palisades and structures, creating a formidable stronghold that commanded the surrounding landscape.

Today, deciduous trees cloak the site, and various later additions tell the story of its transformation into a Georgian demesne feature. An icehouse was built into the northern section of the bailey, whilst a stone passageway cuts through the outer bank at the north-northwest. A low concave stone wall curves along the southeastern base of the motte, and a demesne wall runs against the southern outer bank; all remnants of the site’s 18th or 19th-century reimagining as a romantic garden feature. Despite these later modifications, the fundamental Norman earthworks remain remarkably intact, offering visitors a tangible connection to the turbulent decades following the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland.