The castle sits within what may have been a ringwork fortification, and though time has reduced it to fragments, its historical significance remains substantial. The site gained particular note when William Boy O’Kelly hosted a gathering of poets here during Christmas 1351, an event commemorated in contemporary verse that speaks to the castle’s role as a cultural centre in medieval Ireland.

Today, only the eastern corner of what was once a four storey tower house survives, its stones draped in ivy and rising from a substantial grass covered cairn that measures approximately 27 metres from east northeast to west southwest, 22 metres from north northwest to south southeast, and reaches heights of up to 3 metres. The structure originally featured vaulting over its ground floor, with a passage built into the southeast wall at vault level; a typical defensive feature of Irish tower houses that allowed movement between floors whilst maintaining security.

The O’Kelly family’s connection to Galey extended well beyond that famous Christmas feast. Connor na Garroghe O’Kelly of Grallagh appears in Tudor records as a prominent landowner in 1585, suggesting the family maintained their presence here through centuries of political upheaval. The castle’s location in Longnamuck, County Roscommon, placed it strategically along Lough Ree’s shores, where the O’Kellys could control water routes whilst maintaining their position as patrons of Gaelic culture during a period when such traditions faced increasing pressure from English expansion.