This fortified residence met its end in 1882 when it was pulled down to provide building materials for the new rectory next to Baltinglass Abbey. Today, only tantalising fragments remain; the foundations of the eastern end of the south wall can still be spotted beneath the existing garden wall, their roughly coursed limestone construction measuring over a metre thick. The wall’s distinctive shape hints at what might have been a southeast angle tower, a defensive feature common in medieval Irish architecture.

Before its demolition, the castle appears to have been an impressive sight. A painting reproduced by Fitzgerald in the early 1900s depicts what looked like a three or four storey tower house, complete with windows featuring decorative hood mouldings, those distinctive stone projections that helped divert rainwater from window openings. The painting also shows what seems to be a later residential building attached to the original tower, suggesting the site evolved over centuries from a defensive structure to a more comfortable dwelling.

The castle’s proximity to Baltinglass Abbey wasn’t coincidental; abbots in medieval Ireland often required fortified residences to protect both themselves and the abbey’s considerable wealth. The decision to demolish such a historic structure for building materials might seem shocking today, but it reflects the practical attitudes of the late Victorian era, when medieval buildings were often seen as convenient quarries rather than heritage sites worth preserving. The surviving foundations serve as a reminder of the lost architectural heritage of Baltinglass, and the complex relationship between ecclesiastical power and defensive architecture in medieval Ireland.