The site’s recorded history stretches back to at least 1640, when Sir Edmund Fitz Gerrald, noted as an “Irish Papist” in the Civil Survey of 1654-56, owned the property then known as Gortnatrabuid, or Gort na Tiobraide in Irish. The original fortification consisted of a late sixteenth-century tower house with its defensive bawn wall, complete with a circular flanker tower that still survives in ruins today. The four-storey tower house remains remarkably well-preserved despite losing its roof; its distinctive features include four gables rising directly from the outer walls, two circular bartizans positioned at opposite corners, and pointed arch vaulting above the ground floor.

The castle’s military significance was established early when, in 1579, the Earl of Desmond’s brother John defeated an English force here in a significant engagement. Following the Treaty of Limerick in 1691, the property changed hands from the fleeing Sir John Fitzgerald to the FitzMaurice family, with John Fitzmaurice, grandson of the 20th Lord of Kerry, constructing an eighteenth-century mansion against the medieval tower house; evidence of this building’s roofline can still be traced on the tower’s walls. The estate later passed to the Deane family, who held the title of Lords Muskerry and became the castle’s long-term custodians.

The current Gothic Revival country house complex, which began taking shape around 1740, incorporates the medieval structures into an eight-bay, two-storey residence with a distinctive three-stage entrance tower. After the original Georgian house was burnt during Ireland’s Civil War in 1923, it was rebuilt around 1925, creating the eclectic mix of architectural periods visible today. The property cleverly integrates its ancient defensive elements; including the sixteenth-century tower house and remnants of the bawn wall; with later additions such as a folly constructed from rubble stone walls and a tooled limestone octagonal corner turret topped with a rendered pinnacle. Now operating as holiday accommodation, Springfield Castle offers visitors a chance to experience nearly five centuries of Irish architectural evolution in one remarkable location.