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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Castle - motte

Ballymore Eustace East (Ballymore Eustace ED), County Kildare, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Castle - motte, Ballymore Eustace East, County Kildare, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

Townland
Ballymore Eustace East (Ballymore Eustace ED)
County
Kildare
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
53.13425, -6.61162
SMR number
KD029-011003-

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1790 map "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1799 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1830 · V.3:11-15:XV. Britisches Reich. C. Kon: Ireland. a. Prov: Leinster. Counties: 1-12 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

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This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

Possibly at the N edge of Ballymore Eustace, a historic town (KD029-011001-), where ‘Close Hill’ is named on the OS 25-inch map and shown as a steep-sided subcircular earthwork (base diams. c. 25m NE-SW; upper surface diams. c. 12m NE-SW; c. 10m NW-SE). According to Counihan (1991, 58-9), ‘The section drawing [done by the architect Basil Stallybrass sometime between 1901 and 1906] shows the deliberate scarping of Close Hill and confirms the location of the motte site. Basil's notes mention Close Hill, a circular mound - no bailey, height 35 ft (c. 10.7m) - a terrace on the top larger one side than the other'. According to Bradley et al. (1986, vol. 1, 76), Close Hill is a conical mound (H 20m; summit diam. 9m), the upper 3-4m of which appear to be the result of artificial heightening. The N side has been quarried for gravel. The summit is uneven, and there is a lower (D 1.5m) sloping platform on the W (Wth 6-7m). Large stones and blocks, with traces of mortar, in the enclosing field wall suggest the presence of a significant masonry structure, possibly an Anglo-Norman masonry castle (KD029-011005-), on the motte.

Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy

Date of upload: 30 August 2013

References

Counihan, J. 1991, Mottes, Norman or not! Fortress 11, 53-60

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
All Castle - motte in Kildare All County Kildare records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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