First recorded on the Down Survey barony map of 1656-8, this fortification once stood prominently enough to warrant cartographic attention during one of Ireland’s most comprehensive early mapping projects. The castle appears to have survived, albeit in ruins, for at least another century; Taylor and Skinner’s 1777 road map marks a ruined castle at the site, though curiously, their 1778 edition omits this detail entirely.

Local memory has preserved what official records have not, with residents of the Drimcar parish area maintaining an oral tradition about “Bolton’s Castle” on Tullydonnell hill. This name, recorded in the Irish Folklore Commission archives, suggests the castle may have been associated with the Bolton family at some point in its history, though documentary evidence for this connection remains elusive. The folklore collection, compiled in volume 671 of the IFC archives, provides one of the few remaining links to this lost structure’s place in community memory.

Today, no visible traces of the castle remain above ground, and its exact location within Tullydonnell has been lost to time. Archaeological surveys have identified a possible souterrain, or underground passage, in the vicinity (catalogued as LH018-017002), which may have been associated with the castle complex. However, like the castle itself, the precise location of this subterranean feature remains uncertain, leaving both structures as tantalising ghosts in the landscape; reminders of a defensive past that has quite literally disappeared into the Louth countryside.