The site consists of a rectangular grassy enclosure measuring 47 metres east to west and 34 metres north to south, surrounded on three sides by a substantial moat that’s up to 15 metres wide and 1.4 metres deep. The western side fronts onto a roadway, whilst a section of defensive wall still stands at the north end of this western perimeter; roughly 10 metres long and 1.8 metres thick, it rises to about half a metre on the inside and 1.5 metres on the outside.

The site’s identity has shifted with each chronicler who described it. Writing in 1742, Charles Smith claimed there were towers at each of the four corners, though he noted the centre of the ‘castle’ was open, which might suggest it functioned as a bawn; a fortified courtyard typically used to protect livestock during raids. However, no physical evidence of these corner towers remains today. Adding to the confusion, Taylor and Skinner’s 1778 map marks the site as an abbey ruin, whilst Reverend R.H. Ryland confidently described it as a castle in his 1824 history of Waterford.

Today, what remains is a tranquil, grass-covered space defined by its impressive moat system, sitting on a southwest-facing slope in the gently rolling Waterford countryside. Whether it served as a defensive castle, a religious house, or a fortified farmstead, the site clearly held significance for the local community, though its true purpose may never be definitively established. The surviving wall fragment and the carefully engineered moat suggest considerable investment in defence, whatever the structure’s primary function might have been.