Castle - motte

The National Monuments Service's description

On a hilltop with panoramic views over mixed pasture and tillage. While, traditionally, the site of a battle between the Leinstermen and the Munstermen in the second century AD, there are no documentary references to Ardscull before the coming of the Normans, after which it’s likely that Ardscull became a borough (KD035-010002-) of some importance (Bradley et al. 1986 Vol. I, 23-4). Further, there are no specific medieval references to this imposing earthwork; the first clear reference not occurring until 1654 when the Book of General Orders noted a request from the inhabitants of Co. Kildare for the State to contribute £30 “towards the finishing of a Fort that they have built at the Mote of Ardscull (op. cit. 27). A substantial tree-clad, oval-shaped, earthen mound, the upper surface of which, enclosed by a bank, has been extensively dug out (possibly as a result of the construction of the 17th-century ‘Fort’) and the base of which is girdled by a narrow shallow fosse (base Wth 2m; D 1m) - infilled between ENE and ESE – and a denuded outer bank (H 0.5m at N – 2.3m at S), outside of which a later lane and road run E-S-W (base diams. 122m E-W; 98m N-S; surface diams. base of bank to base of bank 33m E-W; 33m N-S; diams. crest of bank to crest of bank 62m E-W; 46.5m N-S; H above outer ground level to top of bank at N c.8m; at E c.11m; at S c.9m; at W c.10m). At W, a gap (Wth 2m) in the outer bank leads to a ramped causeway (base Wth 8.5m; surface Wth 1.9m) which crosses the fosse and leads up to a gap (Wth 3m) in the bank and the summit of the mound. OMURETHI (1896, 190-91) reproduces Beaufort’s 1789 plan of the monument in which he recorded rectangular structures in the NW and SW sectors of the summit, and “either a well or an entrance to a cave” in the SE sector. Two adjoining shallow rectangular depressions (L 7m NE-SW; Wth 5m; D 0.1-0.3m) in the NW sector may be the remains of Beaufort’s structures, but the other features he recorded are no longer clearly identifiable. At the N foot of the mound a cresentic area (c. 31m E-W; c12 m N-S) is defined by a low curving bank (int. H 0.5m; Wth 3.7m; ext. H 1.6m). It may be a type of outwork, but its dimensions appear to be too small for it to have been a bailey. A 1967 aerial photograph (CUCAP ASU 79) shows an E-W curving arc defined by a scarp some 50m N of the monument (the line of which was followed by a now levelled field boundary shown on the OS 6-inch mapping) which may be the remains of a bailey?

Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy

Date of upload: 29 November 2013

This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 91/1940).

References

Omurethi 1896 The Moat of Ardscull. Journal of the Kildare Archaeological Society 11, 186-93.

Bradley, J., Halpin, A., and King, H.A. 1986 Urban Archaeological Survey - County Kildare (4 vols.). Unpublished report commissioned by the Office of Public Works, Dublin.

CUCAP - Cambridge University Collection of Aerial Photographs. Unit for Landscape Modelling, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge. See:https://www.cambridgeairphotos.com