The fortress or mota of William Ace appears in historical records from 1231-34, when it was used as a landmark to describe the boundaries of Ross wood. While historians initially expected to find a motte at this location, what remains today suggests it was more likely a moated site; a fortified enclosure surrounded by water-filled ditches rather than perched atop an earthen mound.

The site sits at the bottom of an east-facing slope, with a stream running about 140 metres to the northeast. What visitors can see today is a slightly raised, grass-covered rectangular platform measuring roughly 23 metres north to south and 21 metres east to west. Faint traces of the original moats that would have protected this medieval stronghold are still visible, though they’re now mere depressions in the earth, about 3 to 5 metres wide and only 10 to 20 centimetres deep. The 1839 Ordnance Survey map shows a larger oval feature here, approximately 55 metres by 40 metres, which was already marked as the ‘site of Palace’, suggesting the fortification had long since fallen into ruin by the 19th century.

Local memory has preserved something of the site’s significance; the field containing these earthworks is still known as ‘Oldtown’. Archaeological testing carried out in 2018 examined about 6.5 hectares of the field immediately south of the site but found no related artefacts or structures, suggesting that whatever settlement existed here was likely confined to the moated enclosure itself. While William Ace’s fortress may have vanished, leaving only these subtle earthworks behind, its legacy lives on in the very name of the townland it once dominated.