This stronghold of the Purcell family has almost entirely vanished from the landscape, leaving behind only the faintest traces of its existence. When surveyors from the Ordnance Survey visited in 1839, they found just a single strongly groined vault still standing amongst the ruins, a solitary reminder of what was once a substantial medieval fortress.

By the early 20th century, even these meagre remains had largely disappeared. Local historian William Carrigan, writing in 1905, mentioned that only a small fragment of the castle could still be seen at Clone House, but the 1900 revision of the Ordnance Survey map tells a more sobering story; where the 1839 edition had marked the castle as ‘in ruins’, the updated version simply noted ‘site of’, acknowledging that the physical structure had all but vanished. Today, nothing of the castle is visible at ground level, and visitors to Clone House would be hard pressed to identify where this piece of medieval Ireland once commanded the river valley.

The story of Clone Castle’s gradual disappearance is sadly typical of many Irish castles and tower houses, which were often quarried for building stone once they fell out of use. The Purcells, an Anglo-Norman family who held considerable lands in County Kilkenny, would have built their castle here to control this strategic position along the Nore, but time, neglect, and the practical needs of later generations have erased nearly all physical evidence of their presence.