The castle in Enniscrone is also locally known as Field Castle, or O'Dowd's Castle or Nolan's Castle.
The first fortification at this site was built at the end of the 14th century by the O'Dowd's, and a century later it was still in possession of the family, but it was besieged and demolished by the O'Donnell's in 1512. The O'Dowd's rebuilt the castle, but their power in the region was waning.
The current castle was built at the end of the 16th century or early 17th century on the site of the O'Dowd's castle, when the clan sold it to John Crofton who had it demolished and rebuilt in an English style, and then he sold it to Thomas Nolan (hence the name of the castle) from Ballinrobe, co. Mayo.
The castle was used as a garrison during the Confederate Wars in 1641, then it was captured in 1645 by the Parliamentarian troops led by Sir Charles Coote and ended up in the hands of Frances Gore. The Gore family was succeeded by the Orme family, who were the local landlords and owned the castle till the 1920's when it was handed over to the Irish State.
The castle was built as a comfortable residence and consisted of a rectangular gabled house with round towers at every angle. Today only the two west (285°) towers survive. The house was two-storey high with attics. The main arched doorway was in the north wall with the drawbar sockets still visible. In the west wall on the ground floor there's a large fireplace with a small oven built onto its south side. A smaller fireplace is on the upper floor and the chimneys are still intact. Within the corner towers the holes for the beams that would support the floors are still visible, along with a number of gun loops and small windows.
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