Built from coarse limestone blocks, the surviving walls rise to a maximum height of five metres, though historical records from 1905 note they once reached 19 feet, or nearly six metres. The construction shows careful planning; the walls maintain a thickness of about 1.2 metres up to a height of 4.2 metres, then narrow considerably to just 45 centimetres, creating a defensive walkway or bench around the interior perimeter that would have allowed defenders to patrol the walls.

Within this fortified enclosure once stood a residence or castle on the western side, measuring roughly 9 by 6.4 metres with walls 1.2 metres thick. The site’s history becomes clearer in the early 17th century when an Inquisition of March 1613-14 found that Edmond mac Shawn and Loughlin mac Donogh, likely members of the Fitzpatrick family, held the townlands of Lisduff and Aghara. Just a few years later, the lands of “Bawnagherry and Killoghery” were granted by James I to the Duke of Buckingham, marking the transition of these Gaelic holdings into English hands during the plantation period.

Today, only the lower courses of the wall remain intact from the south-west to the east-north-east sections, but the site still offers a tangible connection to Ireland’s complex medieval and early modern history. The term ‘bawn’ itself derives from the Irish word ‘bábhún’, meaning a fortified enclosure, typically associated with plantation-era defensive structures, though this example may have earlier origins given its association with local Gaelic families before the English grants.