When archaeologists surveyed the site in 1977, they found no wall footings or earthworks that might hint at the structure that once dominated this spot. The castle appears on historical maps from the 17th century, including the Down Survey map of Kilcoursey barony, which shows a small castle at nearby Tobber and a church in Gorteen. An early 17th century map of Fox’s country also depicts a castle in Gorteen, which adjoins the village of Tubber.

The castle’s history becomes clearer through plantation records from 1624, when English Crown commissioners granted the property to Tully Higgen. The grant included not just the castle, town and lands of Gorteen, but also turbary rights in the bog and moors of Tobber, a water mill with its course, and two acres in Ballinaminton. His brother Daniel Higgen received additional milling rights, allowing him to grind corn toll-free at the Ballinaminton mill. These grants came with strict conditions; the new owners were forbidden from adopting traditional Irish titles like O’Rourke, O’Molloy, the Fox, McCoghlane, or O’Doyne, and couldn’t collect or pay rents according to Irish customs or divide their land using the Gavelkind system, under penalty of forfeiture.

This prohibition against Irish customs reveals the broader context of the Ulster Plantation, where English authorities sought to impose their own legal and social structures on Irish lands. The castle at Gorteen, though now invisible at ground level, represents a tangible link to this turbulent period when traditional Irish society was being systematically dismantled and replaced with English colonial administration. Today, visitors to the site will find only that wide stony rise, a subtle reminder of the castle that once stood as a symbol of changing power in 17th century Ireland.