Brick construction was relatively uncommon in seventeenth-century Ireland, where stone remained the default material for substantial buildings, which makes the Civil Survey's matter-of-fact description of the place all the more striking. Recorded between 1654 and 1656, that survey noted a dwelling house of brick, accompanied by a barn, a stable, an orchard, and a garden plot, the whole ensemble valued by the jury at three hundred pounds, a significant sum for the period.

The property belonged to Sir James Ware, born in 1594 and died in 1666, a figure who occupied an unusual position in the intellectual life of his era. He served as Auditor-General of Ireland, a senior administrative role concerned with royal finances, but he is perhaps better remembered as a scholar and antiquarian who devoted considerable energy to collecting and publishing materials on Irish history, ecclesiastical records, and the lives of Irish writers. The Meakstown estate was granted to him in 1638 and represented the most valuable of his Dublin properties, encompassing 140 acres of land in addition to the house and its outbuildings. The historian Adams, writing in 1881, described the mansion as extensive, suggesting it was a building of some ambition rather than a modest country residence.

Meakstown today sits in the Finglas area of north Dublin, absorbed into the suburban spread of the city. There is no surviving structure to visit, and the site is not marked or interpreted for the public. What remains is essentially documentary: the Civil Survey entry, the grant record, and the references compiled by later historians. For anyone interested in early modern Dublin or in Ware himself, the National Library of Ireland and the Royal Irish Academy hold collections relevant to his scholarly work, which offer a more tangible connection to the man than the ground at Meakstown is presently able to provide.