By the time of the Civil Survey in 1654;6, it was already described as an ‘old ruined irrepayarable castle and bawne’, though records show it had been the property of one Daniell Kenedy in 1640. The castle appears on the 17th century Down Survey map as a tower house standing opposite a medieval mill, giving us a glimpse of what this fortified residence might have looked like in its heyday.

The most detailed description we have comes from the Ordnance Survey Letters of 1840, when observers found the castle itself completely demolished but noted that portions of the bawn wall; the defensive wall that would have enclosed the castle’s courtyard; still stood about 12 feet high and measured 3 feet 9 inches thick. These substantial limestone walls, held together with lime and sand mortar, included what appeared to be two thatched stables at one end with a stone chimney between them. The survey team noted these remnants stood just southwest of the local church, marking the spot where this once formidable structure commanded the surrounding countryside.

Today, nothing remains visible above ground at the site. Where the castle and its protective bawn once stood, there’s now a working farmyard with farmhouses, the agricultural present having completely overtaken the military past. The transformation from defensive stronghold to productive farmland tells its own story about the changing fortunes of rural Ireland, where the needs of daily farming life have gradually erased the physical traces of centuries old conflicts and the families who once sought safety behind thick stone walls.