 The present building was designed and built around 1830 by James and George Richard Pain for John Keily, MP for Clonmel, and the High Sheriff of County Waterford for 1819–20.It stands in front of the ruin of the original Desmond castle.In 1856 the castle, in an estate of 5000 acres, was bought by 24-year-old George Whitelocke Lloyd of a wealthy Anglo-Irish manufacturing family.