Historical records from the Down Survey of 1656-8 show a castle standing here, marked clearly on the barony map of Duleek. The Civil Survey, conducted just a few years earlier, reveals that Nicholas Darcy of Platen held more than 600 acres across Platen and Callestown, with his property including ‘a castle and some outhouses and cabins’.

By 1700, the medieval castle had given way to something altogether grander; a substantial brick mansion rising three storeys high with an impressive nine-bay frontage. This transformation may have been the work of Sir William Robinson, though the attribution remains uncertain. The new house, built directly on the site of the old D’Arcy castle according to John D’Alton’s 1844 account, represented the changing tastes and ambitions of the Irish gentry as they moved from defensive fortifications to statements of wealth and sophistication.

Today, visitors to the site will find the great house has been demolished, leaving only traces of its former presence in the landscape. About 30 metres to the southeast, a chapel remains as a tangible link to the estate’s past. The Archaeological Inventory of County Meath, first published in 1987 and revised in 2016, continues to document these remnants, ensuring that even as the physical structures disappear, their history remains part of Ireland’s archaeological record.