Greenmount Motte is a motte and National Monument in County Louth, Ireland.
Móta Dhruim Chatha | |||||||||
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Location | Greenmount, Castlebellingham, County Louth, Ireland | ||||||||
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Region | Dee Valley | ||||||||
Coordinates | 53°52′41″N 6°23′09″W / 53.877999°N 6.385855°W | ||||||||
Type | motte | ||||||||
Area | 0.7 ha (1.7 acres) | ||||||||
Height | 12 metres (39 ft) | ||||||||
History | |||||||||
Material | earth | ||||||||
Founded | 12th/13th century | ||||||||
Periods | Norman Ireland | ||||||||
Cultures | Cambro-Norman, Old English | ||||||||
Associated with | Normans | ||||||||
Site notes | |||||||||
Excavation dates | 1830 and 1870 | ||||||||
Archaeologists | Rev. Joseph Dullaghan, John Henry Lefroy | ||||||||
Public access | yes | ||||||||
Designation |
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Location
Greenmount Motte is located 2.9 km (1.8 mi) west of Annagassan, overlooking the Dee Valley.
History and archaeology
Motte-and-bailey castles were a primitive type of castle built after the Norman invasion, a mound of earth topped by a wooden palisade and tower.[1]
The motte at Greenmount was formerly known as Droim Chatha ("Battle Ridge", Anglicised Dromcath or Drumcath). A Nicholas of Drumcath (Nicholaus de Dromcath) is mentioned in a documents of 1310 and 1328.[2]
The foundations of an elongated chamber (1.5 × 1 m in size, 5.5 m below the summit) are visible in the bailey.[3]
A scabbard-mount with runic inscriptions (DOMNAL SELSHOFOTH A SOERTH THETA, "Domnal Seal's-head owned this sword") was found in excavation, but it believed to be long pre-Norman, indicating that the motte was constructed on the site of an earlier tumulus.[4][5] Also found were animal bones, charcoal, burnt earth, a bronze axe and a bone harp peg with friction marks.[6]
Greenmount was a camp ground for Catholic Irish forces in the Irish Rebellion of 1641. It was excavated in 1830, causing a cave-in, and again in 1870.[citation needed]