Though it doesn’t appear on the Down Survey maps from 1656-8, historical records tell us this castle once belonged to Hugh Hussey of Galtim, who owned 444 acres here in 1640. The Civil Survey of 1654-6 paints a picture of a thriving estate, complete with not just the castle itself, but also a church and a corn mill; a small but self-sufficient community in this isolated portion of Navan barony.

Today, what remains of the tower house reveals its defensive past through careful architectural details. While the ground floor and its vault lie buried beneath centuries of earth, the eastern half of three upper storeys still rises above the landscape, measuring 4.5 metres north to south internally. The first floor features double-splay loops in both the north and east walls; narrow openings designed to allow defenders to fire arrows whilst minimising their exposure to return fire. As you ascend through the structure, the architecture shifts from purely defensive to more domestic, with larger windows appearing on the second and third floors, suggesting these upper chambers served as living quarters rather than military positions.

The castle sits within a broader medieval landscape that hints at Rathkenny’s former importance. An attached stone house extends to the south of the tower, whilst the site of the parish church lies about 350 metres to the south-southeast. The nearby Killary Water, whose headwaters flow just 70 metres to the east, would have provided the essential water supply for both the castle’s inhabitants and the corn mill mentioned in historical records. Though time has claimed much of this once-bustling estate, these surviving stones continue to mark Rathkenny’s place in Ireland’s complex tapestry of Norman and Gaelic settlement.