Each month we will focus in on a different Irish field monument. These will be stored in a Monument Archive for you to browse. Click Here for Monument Archive Click Here Fulacht Fia - November 2005 Ringforts - December 2005 Souterrain - January 2006 Standing Stone - February 2006

What were motte and baileys? A motte was a high flat-topped earthen mound on top of which a timber watch tower stood. Some but not all mottes had a bailey attached. The bailey was a rectangular earthwork enclosure attached to one side of the motte . Most of the domestic buildings would be placed in the bailey, including the stable, hall, kitchen, chapel and workshop. The motte was reached by steep steps from the bailey.   When were they used? The sites were constructed by Anglo-Norman lords at an early stage of the Norman conquest in the late 12 th /early 13 th century . The Normans were great castle builders but most of their castles in Ireland were not built of stone but of timber. Building a castle in stone is an expensive business and takes a number of years. A wooden castle, however, is cheap and quickly built. Where are they found? . They were usually constructed at strategic locations, river crossings or on important routeways. Most of the examples are found in the east of Ireland, but there are also examples in the west. How were they made? Sometimes the builders used pre-existing ringforts, natural hills and even burial mounds as the bases of these sites. The motte was created by digging a deep circular ditch, and piling up the earth taken from the ditch into the centre.

What do they look like today? Most mottes are visible today as large mounds, originally conical but now often rounded in profile due to years of erosion. The timber tower and palisades (fences) have not survived.