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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Castle - motte and bailey

Oldcastle, County Meath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Castle - motte and bailey, Oldcastle, County Meath, 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
Oldcastle
County
Meath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Fort
Latest-edition OS map
Hachured
Coordinates
53.76398, -7.16501
SMR number
ME009-024----

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 1636 map "Vltoniae Orientalis Pars" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1636 · Vltoniae Orientalis Pars (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1869 · Ireland. (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

Situated on a low rise in a fairly level landscape. The motte is a circular flat-topped mound of earth (diam. of top 13m N-S; diam. of base 27.5m N-S; H 3m) planted in coniferous trees. It is defined by a fosse (at N: Wth of top 7m; ext. D 1.5m) surviving against the bailey W-ENE and with a stone wall at the base elsewhere. There is a raised crescent-shaped bailey (dims of top 35m E-W; 16m N-S) planted in trees and defined by scarps (at N: H 2m) attached W-ENE. There is a subrectangular enclosure (int. dims c. 4.5m N-S; c. 5m E-W) defined by low earthen banks (Wth 1.5-4m; H 0.2-0.7m) with an entrance at W on the summit of the motte, but this is known to be a modern feature. There are old farm buildings outside the bailey at W and a house is adjacent the motte at E. Archaeological testing (03E1400) by B. Halpin immediately to the N produced no related material (excavations.ie 2003:1445).

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Meath' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1987). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of revision: 7 June 2016
Amended: 15 December 2022, 13 October 2025

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 and bailey in Meath All County Meath records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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