The site at Boleybeg holds a fascinating story of administrative confusion and lost architecture. In 1472, during a parliament session at Naas, the Abbot of Baltinglass made an unusual request: he asked that Rowland Eustace, Lord Portlester, be granted permission to construct a modest £10 castle at a place called ‘Balablaght’. This relatively small sum suggests a minor fortification, perhaps a tower house rather than a grand fortress.

The mystery deepens when examining historical records. While the request clearly mentions ‘Balablaght’, no castle has ever been documented in the nearby Ballybought townland, leading historians like Murphy, writing in 1896, to suggest the reference might actually be to this site in Boleybeg. The confusion likely stems from the fluid nature of place names in medieval Ireland, where spelling variations and phonetic similarities often led to such mix-ups in official documents.

Today, visitors to the site will find no visible traces of the castle that may or may not have been built here. Whether construction never commenced, or time and agriculture have simply erased all evidence of Lord Portlester’s modest stronghold, remains unknown. The absence of physical remains makes this location particularly intriguing; it serves as a reminder that much of Ireland’s medieval landscape exists now only in parliamentary records and the careful detective work of historians trying to match ancient place names to modern townlands.