First mentioned in records around 1320 as “Wallygard,” the castle passed through generations of the Burke (or Bourke) family from the 16th century onwards. The 1540 rental records show it as the estate of Maoilre Burke, whilst by 1587, Edmond Burke had entailed it to his sons Walter and John. The castle remained in Burke hands through the turbulent 1600s, with Theobald Burke recorded as owner in the Civil Survey of 1654-56, when the property comprised not just the castle but also a bawn, two stone houses and a mill.

The castle’s most colourful tale comes from Thomas Dineley, who sketched the four-storey peel tower in 1680 and recounted how a Burke daughter once leapt from a window 16 yards high to escape a forced marriage. In a twist worthy of any romantic drama, she later married the very man she’d fled from and, according to Dineley, “lived happily.” By Dineley’s time, the castle had passed to John Croker, J.P., marking the end of Burke ownership after more than a century.

Today, visitors can explore the atmospheric ruins of both the medieval tower house and the later Ballynagarde House, a Georgian country house built in 1774. The house, now roofless and described by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage as being “in a state of ruin,” was once an elegant five-bay, two-storey residence over a basement with a distinctive central breakfront. The site also preserves remains of two-storey outbuildings with their characteristic red brick arches, and traces of the old walled garden with its distinctive curved corner walls, offering a glimpse into both the medieval and Georgian chapters of this historic Limerick estate.