The site today presents a curious landscape of low undulations and patches of stony ground scattered across the tillage, though any clear pattern or structure is difficult to discern at ground level. These subtle earthworks and stone concentrations hint at the substantial buildings that once stood here, their foundations now largely absorbed back into the agricultural landscape.

Historical records suggest this was once a castle belonging to the Barrymore family, one of the most powerful Anglo-Norman dynasties in medieval Cork. The historian Power, writing in 1923, specifically identified this location as “a castle of Barrymore’s”, linking the site to the lords who controlled vast swathes of east Cork from the 13th century onwards. The Barrymores, originally de Barry, established numerous fortifications throughout their territories to maintain control over their lands and the local Irish population.

While the visible remains may seem unremarkable today, the site represents an important piece of Cork’s medieval heritage. The transformation from imposing fortress to barely perceptible earthworks tells its own story of changing times; as the need for such defensive structures waned and agricultural improvement took precedence, these once-mighty castles were quarried for building stone or simply left to decay. The archaeological record here, documented in the official inventory of 1994 and updated through ongoing research, preserves the memory of this lost stronghold and its role in shaping the political and social landscape of medieval east Cork.