Today, only the low wall footings remain of what was once a tower house, measuring roughly 8 by 7.6 metres internally, with walls a metre thick. These ruins stand at the northeast corner of a circular earthwork that served as the castle’s bawn, or defensive courtyard. Just 50 metres to the east-northeast, the medieval ruins of Cahervally Church and its graveyard complete this historic landscape.

The site poses an intriguing archaeological puzzle about the relationship between its various defensive features. The circular earthwork might predate the tower house entirely, possibly beginning life as an Iron Age ringfort or even an Anglo-Norman ringwork from the 12th or 13th centuries, which was later repurposed when the tower house was built. The grass-covered foundations of a wall that runs along the edge of the enclosure are still visible today, transforming the earlier earthwork into a fortified bawn. Alternatively, the entire complex could have been built as one cohesive defensive structure. Inside the tower house, the footings of a cross-wall about 2.5 metres from the south wall suggest there was once a lobby area.

Historical records trace the castle’s ownership through centuries of Irish and Anglo-Norman families. Known variously as Cahervally, Rahin, or Raheen Castle, it appears in documents from 1336 onwards. By 1583, it was already described as an “old very ruinous” castle. The site passed through various hands, including the O’Cahisse family in the 16th century and the Roche family by 1623. Most notably, James II created Dominick Roche, who had served as Mayor of Limerick in 1691, Viscount of Cahiravahalla and restored the family estates to him. This same Roche family line would later produce Sir Boyle Roche, an 18th-century politician famous for his inadvertently humorous speeches in the Irish Parliament.