The castle likely existed by 1254, when William de Marisicis was granted permission to hold a weekly Thursday market at his manor of Lettrach. The site first appears in historical records as the ‘Old Castle’ of Latteragh in 1269, and over the following century it changed hands several times; by 1284, William de Marisco held substantial lands here, whilst a century later in 1384, John Laffan had taken ownership of the manor.

The castle’s strategic position becomes clear when you examine what remains today. Built atop a natural hillock that has been deliberately scarped and flattened, the structure sits on a square platform measuring roughly 23 by 24 metres. At its heart are the fragmentary remains of a thirteenth-century circular keep, its thick walls measuring 2.6 metres across, with a garderobe chute being the only distinguishable architectural feature still visible. The entire platform is enclosed by a curtain wall of coursed rubble limestone, standing three metres high in places, though later centuries have left their mark; a nineteenth-century limekiln was inserted into the southern wall, and a gateway of the same period pierces the eastern section.

By the time of the Civil Survey of 1654-6, Latteragh was already described as ‘a ruined castle & a Barbicon’, with Sir John Morres listed as its proprietor in 1640. Today, visitors can still trace the outline of what may have been a rectangular building against the western curtain wall, where a protruding wall section hints at additional structures that once stood here. The nearby church to the east reminds us that this was once a thriving medieval settlement, where Thursday markets would have drawn traders and locals to the shadow of the castle walls.