Ballyloughan Castle was built by a local Anglo-Norman lord in the 13th century. It consisted of a huge walled courtyard. The curtain wall measured about 60 metres east-west, and 55 metres north-south. It had four square corner towers and a large gatehouse in the centre of the south-southeast (165°) wall. The entrance in the gatehouse was flanked by two circular towers. The gatehouse protected the entrance of the castle and this is one of the finest examples of its kind in Ireland.
The upper floors were used for comfortable accommodations.
The archeological excavations in 1955 revealed that the castle was surrounded by a ditch, now refilled.
Today only two of the four square towers remain in the southwest and northeast corners, along with the gatehouse, and the ruins of a 17th century building about 50 metres north of the castle.
The castle originally belonged to the Kavanaghs, it was abandoned once in the 14th century, but then it was re-occupied by Donogh Kavanagh.
In the second half of the 17th century it was passed into the hands of the Bagenal family, of nearby Bagenalstown, and in the early 19th century it was given to the Bruen family.
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