Located about three miles east of Tralee, the castle once belonged to the MacElligotts, a powerful family who claimed descent from the MacLeods of the Isle of Skye in Scotland. According to Ordnance Survey records from 1841, the MacElligotts came to Ireland with Galfridus de Marisco, Justice of Ireland, and held substantial lands in Kerry; their influence was such that the entire locality of Ballymacelligott still bears their name.

By 1941, the Kerry Field Club noted that nothing remained of the castle except “a few mounds of stones” with foundations that could “hardly be traced”. The site sits on a natural ledge midway down the slope between the River Lee to the north and a large depression known rather ominously as McElligott’s Prison to the south. A 1989 archaeological survey identified remnants of low earth and stone banks forming a small rectangular enclosure measuring just 9 metres east to west and 4 metres north to south, with parts of the site disturbed by a modern farm track that cuts through the northeastern section.

What survives today is modest; a series of low banks and the natural outcropping of stone that may have been incorporated into the original castle’s construction. The steep drop towards McElligott’s Prison forms the southern boundary of the site, whilst the remaining banks trace out what was likely the castle’s footprint. Though the MacElligotts’ stronghold has largely returned to the earth, the landscape itself preserves the memory of this Scottish family who made their mark on Kerry’s history, their legacy embedded in both the place names and the subtle contours of the land.