The castle appears on the Down Survey maps from 1655 to 1656, one of the most comprehensive land surveys ever undertaken in Ireland, commissioned by Oliver Cromwell to redistribute confiscated lands. This cartographic evidence provides the most tangible proof of the structure’s existence, capturing it at a moment in history when it still commanded the landscape.

By 1839, however, the castle had completely vanished from view. According to the Ordnance Survey Letters from that year, the structure had been levelled sometime before their surveyors arrived to document the area, leaving no visible traces above ground. The exact date and circumstances of its destruction remain unknown, though it likely fell victim to the common fate of many Irish castles; abandoned, quarried for building stone, or deliberately demolished during periods of political upheaval.

Today, visitors to Kellistown West won’t find battlements or towers, but those with a keen eye might spot the subtle undulations in the fields where drainage patterns hint at buried foundations. These agricultural features, while mundane in appearance, serve as the last archaeological whispers of a fortification that once played its part in the complex tapestry of Irish medieval and early modern history. The site serves as a reminder that not all historical monuments survive as romantic ruins; sometimes history lies quite literally beneath our feet.