The site first appears in historical documents during the 17th century, mentioned rather briefly in the 1655 Book of Survey and Distribution’s survey of Bannow town, where it’s noted as sitting on Little Street. Today, nothing remains visible at ground level, leaving only historical accounts to tell its story.

The most intriguing remnant of this structure survived well into the 19th century in the form of a solitary chimney that stood near the church. Around 1840, the antiquarian John O’Donovan recorded it as being 25 feet high, whilst another observer, Tuomey, described it as broken into several pieces that, if reassembled, would have reached between 30 and 40 feet. This wasn’t just any architectural leftover; the chimney served an oddly civic purpose as Bannow’s official notice board, where election announcements for the town’s two Members of Parliament were posted right up until the Act of Union in 1800 abolished the borough.

The chimney’s domestic design suggests it came from a house rather than a defensive structure, challenging the “castle” designation found in some historical references. Its demolition sometime after the mid-19th century removed the last physical trace of what was clearly an important building in Bannow’s history, whether castle or manor house. The site now exists only in the archaeological record, compiled from various historical sources and surveys conducted over the centuries.