The castle, which stood here for centuries, was already showing its age by 1654 when historical records describe it as a ‘thatched castle’; an unusual detail that suggests the fortified residence had seen better days and was making do with a humble roof of straw rather than slate or stone.

By the time antiquarian Austin Cooper visited in 1781, the castle had largely vanished from the landscape. Cooper documented what little remained: just a ground floor archway and fragments of the first floor, melancholy remnants of what had once been a substantial defensive structure. These final traces of medieval Cornelscourt would themselves disappear in the centuries that followed, leaving no visible evidence of the tower house that once commanded this spot.

Today, the Cornelscourt Shopping Centre and its sprawling car park completely occupy the site where the Cheevers once held court. It’s a familiar story across Dublin’s expanding suburbs; ancient strongholds giving way to the demands of modern commerce, their histories preserved only in place names and the careful notes of long-dead antiquarians. The transformation from thatched castle to shopping centre spans nearly 400 years of Irish history, a reminder of how thoroughly the landscape of south Dublin has been reimagined since medieval times.