First recorded in 1551 as part of the manor of Rosegarland, this fortification once commanded views across 1,100 acres of land encompassing Newcastle, Clongeen and Loughnageer. By 1641, it had passed into the hands of Marcus Sinnot of Rosegarland, though the structure was already showing signs of decline; records from 1654 describe it as being in poor repair.

The castle’s physical presence gradually faded from the landscape over the following centuries. When the Ordnance Survey mapped the area in 1839, they could only trace the faint outline of a rectangular structure, roughly 20 metres north to south and 10 metres east to west, marking it simply as “the site of a castle” in gothic lettering. John O’Donovan, writing around 1840, confirmed what the mapmakers suspected: the castle had already been completely levelled, leaving no visible masonry remains above ground.

Though the stones have long since vanished, modern aerial photography has revealed the castle’s ghostly footprint beneath the cereal fields. Cropmarks clearly show a rectangular double-ditched enclosure measuring approximately 30 by 40 metres internally, complete with outer fosses or moats and a leat running off to the north. These archaeological features, captured in both independent aerial surveys and the Ordnance Survey Ireland’s photographs from 2000, offer tantalising glimpses of what was once a significant defensive structure in medieval Wexford. The Down Survey maps from 1656-8 also preserve the castle’s memory, providing crucial documentary evidence of this lost landmark.