Built around 1550 and once home to the Leicester family, this fortification has long since surrendered its stone walls to time, leaving behind only subtle traces in the landscape. Today, visitors will find low banks and shallow ditches, or fosses as they’re properly called, marking out where this 16th-century stronghold once stood in Clonearl Demesne.

The Leicester family’s occupation of this castle places it firmly within the complex history of English settlement in Ireland during the Tudor period. Unlike many of Ireland’s more famous castles that still boast impressive towers and battlements, this site requires a bit more imagination to appreciate. The complete absence of visible masonry means that what remains is essentially the castle’s footprint; a series of defensive earthworks that once supported or surrounded stone structures now completely vanished.

Archaeological surveys have documented these features, noting how the banks and fosses still clearly define the castle’s original boundaries despite centuries of erosion and agricultural activity. While it might not offer the dramatic photo opportunities of better-preserved castles, the site provides a fascinating glimpse into how quickly even substantial stone buildings can disappear from the landscape when abandoned, leaving only these gentle undulations in the earth as evidence of their existence.