Built from roughly coursed rubble with walls nearly two metres thick, this fortified residence dates back to at least the mid-17th century, when records from the Civil Survey of 1654-6 describe it as ‘an old castle’ with a thatched house and defensive bawn. The townland, then known as Ballytarsny-Mckeorish, belonged to Edward Boyton, an alderman from Cashel who was noted in contemporary documents as an ‘Irish Papist’, a reminder of the religious tensions that characterised the period.

The tower house itself presents an intriguing architectural puzzle, with its irregular plan featuring projections on both the western and northern sides. Originally at least three storeys high, visitors would have entered through a doorway at the southern end of the western projection, passing through a defensive entrance lobby complete with a guard chamber and spiral staircase tucked into the northwest corner. The ground floor, still covered by its original vaulted ceiling, was accessed from this lobby, whilst a small underground chamber, resembling a souterrain, runs beneath the lobby wall near the south wall of the tower; perhaps once used for storage or as a hiding place during troubled times.

Though much altered over the centuries, with modern windows, external rendering and a new roof, the building retains fascinating glimpses of its medieval past. At second floor level, a round-headed doorway and single-light window still display the distinctive punch tooling of their original craftsmen. By the 1840s, the tower had been incorporated into a distillery complex, as shown on early Ordnance Survey maps, representing yet another chapter in its long history. The castle acquired the name ‘Castle Leake’ in the early 18th century, after Matthew Leake, a clergyman who made it his home, adding a genteel Protestant layer to a structure that had once sheltered Catholic gentry in more turbulent times.