The Civil Survey of 1654-6, a comprehensive land survey undertaken during the Cromwellian period, paints a rather bleak picture of Killerk Castle’s condition at the time. The surveyors noted that the structure was ‘altogether downe onely the Walls standing’, essentially describing a ruin where only the outer walls remained upright. This wasn’t an isolated case; the survey mentions that nearby Killerck castle was ‘in like condition’, suggesting that many fortifications in the area had fallen into similar states of disrepair during this turbulent period of Irish history.

The castle’s ownership history provides a glimpse into the local gentry of the time. According to the same survey, Nicholas Everard of Fethard, Esquire, held the property in 1640, just before the outbreak of the Confederate Wars that would ravage much of Ireland throughout that decade. Even then, the castle was already described as ‘an old broken castle’, indicating that its decline had begun well before the mid-century conflicts. The Everard family were prominent landowners in the region, and Nicholas’s connection to Fethard, a significant medieval walled town nearby, suggests he may have preferred to reside there rather than maintain the crumbling fortress at Killerk.

Today, visitors to the site will find no visible traces of the castle above ground, though its location is marked on historical Ordnance Survey maps from the early 20th century. The 1903-04 edition shows the castle site positioned within the western side of an enclosure, preserving at least the memory of where this once-important structure stood. The transformation from medieval stronghold to empty field serves as a quiet reminder of how dramatically Ireland’s landscape has changed over the centuries, with countless castles, tower houses, and fortifications gradually disappearing into the earth, leaving only documentary evidence and place names to mark their former existence.