The site sits on level pasture ground, where only fragments of the original structure remain visible above the earth. What survives is primarily the gatehouse, positioned in the southeastern portion of an oval bawn that once provided the castle's outer defences.

The bawn itself forms an impressive oval enclosure, measuring 43 metres from northwest to southeast and 35 metres from southwest to northeast. Its boundary is marked by a scarp standing 1.4 metres high, with an external fosse, or defensive ditch, that runs 9 metres wide and a metre deep around the perimeter. While most of this fosse remains dry today, the western section still carries the Aughatharra stream, locally known as the "county" stream, which winds through the old defensive earthwork. Historical accounts from Carrigan's 1904 writings describe the castle ruins as measuring 3.96 metres wide and 4.26 metres long, with walls an impressive 1.82 metres thick. The eastern-facing entrance door was noted as being 2.4 metres wide and 3.65 metres high.

The site has endured some confusion regarding its exact location; Carrigan incorrectly placed it in the neighbouring Killtallaghan townland, which lies about 40 metres to the southwest. Local tradition knows these ruins by the Irish name Shannachlugh or Sean Chloch, meaning "Old Building", a fitting description for this medieval fortification that has watched over the Kilkenny countryside for centuries. Archaeological surveys from 1989 and satellite imagery from 2019 continue to document what remains of this once-formidable defensive structure.