The Ordnance Survey maps from the 19th and early 20th centuries reflect this uncertainty; the 1840 edition marks the site as ‘Castle (in Ruins)’ with surviving remains, whilst by 1927 it had been downgraded to merely ‘Castle (Site of)’. What actually exists at this location is a rath, an ancient Irish ringfort catalogued as monument WA031-046001, which predates any medieval castle by centuries.

The confusion likely stems from centuries of local folklore and the tendency for medieval landowners to sometimes build upon or near earlier fortifications. Records show that Thomas FitzHarris owned land at nearby Ballynure and Lisnefinley in 1641, during a period when many Anglo-Norman families maintained fortified houses throughout Waterford. However, the Civil Survey of 1654-1656, which meticulously documented Irish lands following the Cromwellian conquest, makes no mention of a castle at this particular location, despite recording FitzHarris’s holdings in the area.

The Ordnance Survey Name Books, compiled by surveyors who interviewed local residents in the 1800s, noted the persistent tradition of a castle here, but could find no documentary evidence to support it. This discrepancy between oral history and written records is common across Ireland, where raths and other prehistoric monuments have often been reimagined in local memory as the ruins of more recent structures. Today, visitors to Middlequarter will find the earthworks of an ancient ringfort rather than castle stones, a reminder that sometimes the stories attached to a place can be as enduring as the monuments themselves.