Castle - motte and bailey

The National Monuments Service's description

The following description is derived from both the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1986) and the 'Archaeological Survey of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1991). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.
Date of upload/revision: 17 July 2007

Situated on high ground to the S of the River Boyne within the medieval walls of Drogheda and consisting of a high steep mound (H 14.7-16m, max. diam. at base 62.5m, at summit 27.6m) with the remains of a D-shaped bailey (Wth 68m by 50m) at the W. Orpen (1908; fig. on p. 249) illustrates the bailey fosse and the line of part of another one at the SE side of the motte which is now occupied by a roadway. He also illustrates a sub-rectangular lower bailey at the NW but there is no surface evidence of this. The name 'Millmount' (the name applied to the site on the OS 6-inch map) is apparently derived from the fact that there was a windmill erected on the motte in the fifteenth century. This was replaced in 1810 by a Martello tower (IFC Schools MSS vol. 680, 200), the remains of which still stand on the summit of the motte. The bailey is clearly defined on all but the N side by a steep escarpment and is now occupied by a housing development. A wall marking the line of the so-called lower bailey is of modern origin and is hardly part of the original defences as the N side of the D-shaped bailey is likely to have returned onto the NW side of the motte. (Orpen 1908, 246-50; CLAJ 1931, 406; CLAJ 1943, 243-4)

References

Branigan, L. F. 1931 An old view of Drogheda, County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society Journal, vol. 7, 3, 406.