This castle is situated eight miles north-by-west of Dublin, near the village of St. Margaret’s, off the Ashbourne road.
It consists of a splendidly preserved keep about 80 feet high, flanked by four square towers which rise above the roof at each corner. One of these contains a winding stair leading to the battlements, at the top of which a flight of ten steps gives egress to the summit of the watch tower.
The other three towers have little rooms opening off the different storeys.
The ground floor, which was most likely a kitchen, is a large vaulted apartment into which a door has been quarried in later years.
The first floor was once a fine wainscotted room, the walls of which were yet hung with family pictures when D’Alton visited it in 1838.
A flight of wooden stairs connects this apartment with the ground.
The two upper storeys had wooden floors, and the building is still covered by a good slated roof, which is evidently a modern addition. So too are the large square windows, some of which are glazed and others protected by wire netting. The doorways are Gothic.
In the south-west tower is the prison with no entrance except through a hole in the roof by which captives and their food were let down.
Tradition states an underground passage connects the castle with St. Margaret’s Church, as well as having many hidden vaults.
Beside the keep is the ruined chapel with an arched doorway, which has been used as a cowshed. At the side towards the castle is a low built-up archway over which is a slab carved with the symbols of the crucifixion, and having under it the inscription:—“J.P.M.D.S., 1573,” which is supposed to mean Johannes Plunket Miles de Dun-Soghly, 1573.