Built atop a rocky outcrop, this tower house now exists primarily as ruins, with the southwest corner still reaching approximately 10 metres in height. The structure rises from a steep-sided mound of collapsed rubble, the result of the castle’s dramatic collapse around 1870. Inside the south wall, visitors can still spot the springings of what was once a wicker-centred vault running east to west, positioned just above the current rubble level. A single flat-headed window opening remains visible on the southern face below the mound.

The castle’s surroundings tell their own story of defensive architecture and domestic life. To the east of the main rubble mound, overgrown remnants of a walled enclosure measuring about 6 metres north to south suggest this may have once adjoined the eastern side of the tower. Additional traces of walling can be found 7.5 metres to the south, extending roughly 4 metres in a north-south direction, hinting at a more extensive fortified complex than what survives today.

Like many of the O’Driscoll castles scattered throughout this region of Cork, Cloghan Castle would have served as both a defensive stronghold and a symbol of clan power during the medieval period. Its island location in Lough Ine provided natural defences, whilst the tower house design allowed the O’Driscolls to monitor and control the surrounding waterways. Though much reduced from its former glory, the surviving stonework offers a tangible connection to the complex network of Gaelic lordships that once dominated this corner of Ireland.