What began as a modest tower house has grown through successive additions into the farmhouse that exists today, with each phase of construction leaving its mark on the building’s fabric. The Civil Survey of 1654-6 paints a rather bleak picture of the property’s condition in 1640, when it belonged to Florence Fennell and Walter Hackett; described then as merely ‘a little stumpe of a castle with 3 or 4 cabbins’, suggesting the original tower had already seen better days.

The original rectangular tower house, measuring roughly 4.8 metres north to south and 4.6 metres east to west with walls nearly a metre thick, forms the core of the present structure. This compact defensive building, which survives to two storeys and retains its characteristic base batter beneath modern concrete pebble dash rendering, was first extended southward by about 4 metres, possibly during the 17th century. A second, more substantial extension of 10 metres followed, likely in the late 18th or early 19th century, creating the current configuration. The resulting house presents itself on the western façade as a two-storey, four-bay farmhouse that projects slightly beyond the original tower’s western face, though its asymmetrical window arrangement and irregular chimney placement clearly reveal its piecemeal development.

The eastern façade offers perhaps the clearest reading of the building’s construction history, where three distinct rooflines mark each phase of expansion southward from the medieval tower. Modern PVC windows have replaced earlier openings on the west side, but the overall character of the 18th and 19th century farmhouse remains intact. A well-preserved farmyard of similar date stands to the east of the house, completing this rural ensemble. The Hackett family’s long association with Cooleagh stretches back at least to 1551, when Richard Hacket of Coulleghe served as a juror according to the Ormond Deeds, suggesting this modest tower house and its later additions have witnessed centuries of continuous occupation and adaptation.