Mottes were high mounds with a wooden tower on top which usually had a bailey (courtyard) attached. They were surrounded by a palisade wall and ditch and were introduced to Ireland by the Normans. These early castles were used to dominate newly acquired territory as quickly as possible and were mostly built in the immediate decades following the invasion, between 1170 and 1230AD.1
A motte was quite similar in design to the Gaelic ‘platform rath’, such as that of the kings of Mide near Lough Ennell, and in some cases were built on top of or repurposed older Irish forts. The ‘keep’ on top of the motte was quite small so the bailey housed the barracks, kitchen, stables and barn. Most examples can be found in the east of the island which faced the brunt of Norman attacks in the earlier years.
Following Hugh de Lacy’s fortification of the Lordship of Meath, what is now County Meath became one of the most heavily settled regions in the country.2 A line of mottes were constructed across north Meath, spaced at an average of two and a half kilometres apart. Other mottes constructed on the banks of the Boyne allowed de Lacy to control the river system for trade and supply purposes.3
Aside from being able to hold a garrison of troops, motte & baileys sometimes served as the centre of the Norman manor4– an area of land with fixed boundaries ruled over by a Lord. Manors had an economic function – levying taxes and holding markets, as well as a social function, such as providing a parish church for the inhabitants. In Meath alone, there could have been up to 98 manorial villages which always contained a church and usually a castle and mill.5
Generally speaking, once the Normans had become more established in an area the motte would be replaced with a stone castle. The old village of Moynalty, for example, sprang up close to the castle at Crochawella, however the motte on the opposite side of the river would have been where the Normans originally set up.
Others mottes can be found in the nearby townlands of Robertstown, Moat, Cruicetown, Kilbeg and Moybologue. Hugh de Lacy, the first Norman lord of Meath, is likely responsible for building some of these – or Gilbert FitzThomas, who was one of his knights and was granted the land around Kenlis (Kells).
The most significant local motte is located at Nobber and served as the caput (capital) of the Barony of Morgallion.6 Morgallion was the barony in north Meath which was given to another of de Lacy’s knights, Gilbert De Angulo. As Nobber sat on the edge of the Pale, it was frequently attacked by Gaelic kings, and in 1425 the McMahons burned the town and took 80 English prisoners, while the O’Neills & O’Donnells later burned the motte in 1434.7
The village of Nobber was re-fortified in 1573, and the motte is recorded as being used as late as 1648 during the Confederate War.8
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References
- Gilliant Barrett, ‘Early landscapes: from prehistory to plantation’ in A. Aalen, K. Whelan, and M. Stout (eds) Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape (Cork, 1997), p. 55
- B. J. Graham, ‘Anglo-Norman Settlement in County Meath’, in Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature, Vol. 75 (1975), pp. 223-249 (29 pages)
- Noel French, Hugh de Lacy, who was so bold (Meath Archaeological & Historical Society, 2022), p.66
- Mark Keegan ‘The archaeology of manorial settlement in west County Limerick in the thirteenth century’ in ed. James Lyttleton and Tadhg O’Keefe, The Manor in Medieval and Early Modern Ireland (Dublin, 2005), p. 18
- Graham, ‘Anglo-Norman Settlement in County Meath’, pp. 223-249 (29 pages)
- Daniel Brown, Hugh de Lacy, First Earl of Ulster: Rising and Falling in Angevin Ireland (Woodbridge, 2016), p. 249
- Charles Mount, ‘Notes on the history of the manor of Nobber’ in Riocht na Midhe, Volume 19 (2008), pp. 82-83
- Mount, ‘Notes on the history of the manor of Nobber’, p. 83