Castle - motte

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on top of a prominent natural rise (128m/420ft OD), which is part of a natural ridge running N-S, in pasture, with extensive views in all directions. A public road lies c. 10m to NE, with St. Nicholas church (WM017-100----) and graveyard (WM017-100001-) 70m to NE. Depicted on the 1837 OS 6-inch map as a circular mound (approx. dims. 22m N-S; 25m E-W) with an OS trig. point on summit marking 419 ft. OD.
Described in 1980 as a high, steep-sided, roughly circular-shaped. flat-topped mound of earth and stone which is densely overgrown with vegetation. Areas that are visible on the N, E and S sides have no grass-cover and the soil is exposed. There are a fairly large number of stones visible in the sides of the mound. There are a series of three roughly formed terraces at the edges of the mound to N and E, which may represent slippage. The large stones appear to be set in rows at these points, potentially forming a revetment. The remains of a shallow fosse are present from W-NW-NNW and a field fence obscures the outer edge. The top of the mound is reasonably flat and appears to be featureless, although it is largely obscured by dense overgrowth. There is no indication of a bailey. The monument is respected by a curvilinear field boundary to W. An old field bank runs E-W just outside the base of the mound at S. The area to E appears to be disturbed where there are a number of small depressions, a small mound of earth and stones and some large boulders or outcroppings of bedrock. Monument visible today as a roughly oval-shaped tree-covered area on Digital Globe aerial photography.

Compiled by: Alison McQueen, Vera Rahilly and Caimin O’Brien

Date of upload: 24 December 2018