Castle - motte and bailey

The National Monuments Service's description

In undulating pastureland, c. 100m to the S of the old course of the Dooyertha River and c. 250m to the E of Rathgorgin Castle (GA096-151----). Orpen (1916, 34-44) recorded that this motte and bailey was known locally as ‘Cruckawootha’ or the 'Knock of the Moat' and he suggested that it ‘was erected by Gilbert de Angulo or one of his feoffees [sic] about the close of the 12th century’. It is defined by a steep-sided flat-topped and very heavily overgrown circular mound of earth and stone (diam. 31m; H 4.45m), which is encircled by a wide deep fosse (Wth 3.2m) and an outer bank (base Wth 7.6m; int. H 1.1m; ext. H 1.8m) from NE through S to NW. Orpen (ibid., 39-40) also described a bailey (41m N-S), defined by a scarp, which extended off the motte to the N; it narrowed towards its N end (Wth c. 20m). His plan shows a circular building (GA096-144001-) and a possible enclosure (GA096-114002-) at the NW end of the bailey and he also referred to another enclosure (GA096-144003-) to the E of the motte. No visible surface traces of the latter features survive but the outline of the bailey is indicated by a slight rise in the ground level. (O’Flanagan 1927, Vol. 1, 425; McCaffrey 1952, 163, no. 39)

Compiled by: Galway Archaeological Survey, UCG

Date of upload: 10 December 2019

References

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1927 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Galway collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1839. Typescript in 3 vols. Bray.

McCaffrey, P. 1952 A contribution to the archaeology of the barony of Dunkellin, Co. Galway. Unpublished MA thesis, National University of Ireland, Galway.

Orpen, G.H. 1915-16 The mote of Oldcastle and the castle of Rathgorgin. Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society 9, 33-44.