The lands were first recorded in 1247 when Peter Keting held them in wardship, and by 1307, Nicholas de Keying controlled the estate through half a knight’s fee from the powerful Bigod family. This early medieval holding pattern was typical of Norman Ireland, where lands were parcelled out through complex feudal arrangements that bound lesser nobles to their overlords through military service obligations.

By the 16th century, the property had transferred to the Keating family of Kilcowanmore, also known as Ballybrennan in Bantry. The Civil Survey of 1654-6 provides a snapshot of the estate at its height, recording that Oliver Keating possessed the castle along with 240 acres at Kilcowan proper, plus an additional 515 acres elsewhere in the parish, totalling 755 acres. This substantial holding suggests the Keatings were significant landowners in south Wexford during the turbulent period before Cromwell’s conquest.

The castle itself appears to have been a modest rectangular structure, roughly 10 metres in dimension according to the faint outline captured on the 1839 Ordnance Survey map. It stood on flat, low-lying ground with a stream running about 20 metres to the west. The antiquarian John O’Donovan noted around 1840 that the castle had been demolished some fifteen years earlier, circa 1825. Local memory preserves knowledge of rubble discovered when the site was cleared of scrub, but today the location offers no trace of the fortification that once stood here, its stones likely recycled into nearby field walls and farm buildings as was common practice.