Records from 1640 describe it as “a small destroyed Wast castle” when Anthony O’Dwyer was its proprietor, suggesting the building was already in ruins by the mid-17th century. When antiquarian John O’Donovan visited in 1840, he found only the eastern gable standing to its full height, topped with a chimney, alongside fragments of what he described as a square tower; both of these features have since vanished.

Today, visitors will find the surviving eastern wall of this four-storey limestone tower house, stretching 5.5 metres in length, along with portions of the north and south walls. The western end, which would have contained the entrance and stairway, has completely disappeared. The construction tells its own story of medieval building techniques; limestone rubble forms the main structure with a defensive base-batter, whilst the quoins show careful dressing only on the upper floors. Simple arrow slits provided light and ventilation to the ground floor, one centred in each surviving wall, whilst the upper levels featured more generous flat-headed windows with cut-stone surrounds, their punch-dressed finish and bar holes pointing to construction in the late 16th or early 17th century.

The interior reveals fascinating details about daily life in a medieval tower house. Wooden floors once rested on joists at the first and second levels, whilst a barrel vault crowned the third floor. Perhaps most remarkable is the evidence of the original internal finishes; mud rendering covered with white limewash still clings to the walls, particularly well preserved in the ground-floor window embrasure on the eastern wall. The fourth floor’s large central window, now partially blocked, and the third floor’s smaller opening in the north wall would have flooded these upper chambers with light, making them the most comfortable spaces in what was once a formidable defensive residence.