A small stream flows westward, skirting the ridge from east through north to north-west, creating the gentle topography that once made this spot attractive to medieval builders. While the original Nurney Castle has completely disappeared from view, leaving no visible surface traces, its presence was significant enough to be marked on the 1939 Ordnance Survey six-inch map as ‘Nurney Castle on site of Castle’.

The castle’s memory lived on through Nurney House, an 18th-century structure that incorporated elements of the older fortification. In 1837, when antiquarian Michael O’Conor was conducting his survey for the Ordnance Survey Letters, he noted that part of an old castle was attached to Walter Fitzgerald’s house, with local tradition holding that the Baggots were the original proprietors. This connection between the medieval castle and the later Georgian house was typical of how Irish landowners often built upon or alongside earlier defensive structures, recycling both materials and prestige.

Today, only the vaulted basement of Nurney House survives, its construction notable for containing substantial amounts of red brick; a detail that speaks to the building practices of the Georgian era. About 180 metres to the west-north-west lie the ruins of a second castle, suggesting this area once held considerable strategic or economic importance. Together, these archaeological remnants paint a picture of continuous occupation and adaptation, where each generation of inhabitants left their mark on the Kildare landscape, even as earlier structures faded into memory and earth.