Built in the 17th century, this square structure featured a hipped roof and large windows set within wide, round-arched embrasures; a design that balanced defensive needs with more comfortable living arrangements typical of the period. The building’s military character was evident in the machicolations at roof level, those projecting galleries with openings through which defenders could drop stones or pour hot liquids on attackers below.

This substantial house replaced an earlier 16th-century castle that served as the stronghold of the Mac Coghlans, a prominent local family who controlled this part of Offaly for generations. Their original fortress met a violent end in 1548 when it was destroyed, marking a turbulent period in the region’s history as old Gaelic lordships clashed with expanding English power. The Mac Coghlans, like many Irish families of the time, found themselves caught between maintaining their traditional authority and adapting to new political realities.

Today, nothing visible remains at ground level of either structure; their stones long since repurposed or buried beneath modern development. The only visual record of the later fortified house comes from illustrations by antiquarian Daniel Grose, whose drawings for his Antiquities of Ireland captured many such buildings before they vanished entirely from the Irish landscape. The transformation from medieval stronghold to 17th-century fortified house to modern post office tells a quiet story of how Ireland’s contested past has been gradually overwritten by the mundane necessities of everyday life.