This late sixteenth or early seventeenth century stronghold has seen considerable changes over the centuries, most notably during the Victorian era when its walls were rendered, faux battlements added, and a new wing constructed at the southeast corner. Despite these modifications, the building’s defensive origins remain visible; the original base batter can still be seen on the north wall, whilst narrow defensive slit windows survive in the south wall.

The fortified house consists of a three-storey rectangular block with walls measuring 2.32 metres thick, complemented by a smaller square tower at the northwest corner that housed compact chambers on the first and second floors. This corner tower may actually be the remnant of an earlier O’Kennedy tower house, later incorporated into the seventeenth century fortification. The main entrance in the south wall leads to an impressive ground floor chamber with a barrel vault running north to south, flanked by two smaller barrel-vaulted chambers oriented east to west. These vaults still display evidence of the original wicker centring used in their construction. A blocked fireplace sits in the centre of the north wall, whilst the northernmost chamber features a large circular stone trough carved directly from the bedrock upon which the house stands.

The building’s defensive features were carefully planned; a mural staircase within the south wall provided access to upper floors, whilst a small passage directly above the main entrance led to a murder hole, allowing defenders to attack anyone who breached the entrance below. Though continuous occupation has obscured many original features, the fine barrel vaulting, narrow defensive windows set in lintelled embrasures, and the mural stairs remain as testament to the building’s martial past. By 1654, the Civil Survey recorded the site as ‘an old ruined castle & bawne the walls onely standing one garden & eight cottages’, suggesting it had already fallen into disrepair. The bawn wall to the south, though topped with Victorian battlements, may be original to the fortified house, as might the formal walled garden depicted on the first edition Ordnance Survey map, which still survives today.