Wicklow landscape. This rectangular four-storey tower house, built from uncoursed rubble with dressed granite and limestone corners, rises to approximately 21 metres in height. The castle’s strategic location and substantial construction reflect its importance as a defensive structure that was held by notable families including the Archbolds and later the Walshes of Carrickmines, who held the lands under the Earls of Ormond from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries.

The tower house itself measures roughly 7.85 metres north to south and 5 metres east to west, featuring barrel vaulting at both ground and first floor levels. Access to the tower was cleverly designed through a projecting single-storey entrance tower on the north side, leading via a first floor intramural passage to a round-headed doorway in the west face. A spiral staircase in the northwest corner connects the second to fourth floors, whilst ogee-headed windows with glazing bar holes at second floor level demonstrate the blend of defensive and domestic architectural features typical of such structures.

Beyond the tower, the remains of a bawn wall extend westward from the northwest corner for about 16 metres, with the wall following the edge of the natural platform above the steep slopes. Two circular gate towers mark the entrance to the complex; the eastern tower stands largely intact at 2.5 metres high, whilst only the entrance of the western tower survives. Of particular interest is evidence of a 17th century house attached to the west wall of the tower, which may have served as a hall in a similar fashion to other fortified houses of the period such as Coolamber Castle in Co. Longford and Coolhull Castle in Co. Wexford. This combination of narrow residential tower with an adjoining rectangular hall structure represents an interesting evolution in Irish castle design during the early modern period.