Historical records paint a picture of a site with a colourful past, though local tradition attributes its construction to King John, a claim made by the antiquarian Dyneley but unsupported by documentary evidence. The castle appears in records from 1583, when the Earl of Desmond held it as part of Awney Manor, referring to it as “duobus lez Sculles”, suggesting the site may have comprised two distinct structures or settlements.

Throughout the 17th century, the castle passed through numerous hands, reflecting the turbulent nature of Irish land ownership during this period. The Stritch family held it in 1612, with James Stritch recorded as possessing the castle, bawn, water mill and two weirs. By 1624, it had transferred to Sir William Parsons following the death of Alderman William Stritch, and subsequent owners included William Hurley in 1657, Captain A. Ormsby in 1666, and Captain Ingoldesbye by 1680. The Civil Survey of 1654-56 provides valuable detail about the site during the Cromwellian period, noting that William Stretch’s lands at Scoole contained a castle, a mill seat, and eight cabins, while the Down Survey map from the same era depicts what appears to be a tower house structure.

By the 19th century, the castle had fallen into severe decay; an Ordnance Survey report from 1840 recorded that only fragments of the north and south walls remained standing, measuring 10 and 22 feet high respectively. Today, virtually nothing visible remains above ground, though aerial photography occasionally reveals the ghostly outlines of the castle and its bawn as cropmarks in the fields, serving as a reminder of the medieval and early modern settlement that once dominated this corner of Limerick.