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applied to a fort on the flat. Rath is translated fossa in the Book of Armagh; Jocelin of Furness equates it with murus. The rath of Armagh was evidently a very large enclosure in 1166, containing several streets, houses, and churches, so it was certainly not a motte. It is of course not impossible that the Normans may sometimes have occupied an ancient fortified site, but we may be sure from the considerations already urged that the fortifications which they erected were of a wholly different character to the previous ones, even if they utilised a portion for their bailey.

It is of course difficult to decide in some cases (both in Ireland and elsewhere) whether a mound which stands alone without a bailey is a sepulchral tumulus or a motte. There are some mottes in England and Scotland which have no baileys attached to them, and do not appear ever to have had any. In Ireland, the country of magnificent sepulchral tumuli, it is not wonderful that the barrow and the motte have become confused in popular language. It would appear, too, that there exist in Ireland several instances of artificial tumuli which were used for the inauguration of Irish chieftains, and these have occasionally been mistaken for mottes. As Mr Orpen has shown, there are generally indications in the unsuitability of the sites, in the absence of real fortification, or in the presence of sepulchral signs, to show that these tumuli did not belong to the motte class. Magh Adair, for example, which has been adduced as a motte outside the Norman boundary, is shown by Mr Orpen to be of quite a different character.

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At many sites in Ireland where the Normans are known to have built castles at an early period of the invasion there are no mottes to be seen now. It is probable that where the Norman conquerors had both money and time at their disposal they built stone keeps from the first, and that the motte-castles, with their wooden towers or bretasches, were built in the times of stress, or were the residences of the less wealthy undertenants. But we know from documents that even in John's reign the important royal castle of Roscrea was built with a motte and bretasche,1 which proves that this type of castle was still so much esteemed that we may feel reasonably certain that when Giraldus speaks of "slender defences of turf and stakes" he does not mean motte - castles, but mere embankments and palisades.2

But there is another reason for the absence of mottes from some of the early Norman castle sites. Those who have examined the castles of Wales know that it is rare to find a motte in a castle which has undergone the complete metamorphoses of the Edwardian period. These new castles had no keeps, and necessitated an entire change of plan, which led either to the destruction of the motte or the building of an entirely new castle on a different site. The removal of a motte is only a question of spade labour, and many

O'DONOVAN'S GUESSES

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sites in England can be pointed out where mottes are known to have existed formerly, but where now not a vestige is left. There are many other cases where the Edwardian castle shows not a trace of any former earthworks, but where a motte and bailey a little distance off probably represents the original wooden castle.2

The passion for identifying existing earthworks with sites mentioned in ancient Irish history or legend has been a most serious hindrance to the progress of real archæological knowledge in Ireland. It is not until one begins to look into this matter that one finds out what giddy guesswork most of these identifications of Irish place-names really are. O'Donovan was undoubtedly a great Irish scholar, and his editions of the Book of Rights and the Annals of the Four Masters are of the highest importance. The topographical notes to these works are generally accepted as final. But let us see what his method was in this part of his labours. In the Book of Rights, he says very naïvely, about a place called Ladhrann or Ardladhrann, "I cannot find any place in Wexford according with the notices of this place except Ardamine, on the sea-coast, where there is a remarkable moat." No modern philologist, we think, would admit that Ardamine could be descended from Ardladhrann. In the same way O'Donovan guessed Treada-na-righ, "the triple-fossed fort of the kings," to be the motte of Kilfinnane, near Kilmallock. But this was a pure guess, as he had previously guessed it to be "one of the forts called Dun-g-Claire." To the antiquaries of that day one earthwork seemed as good as another, and differences of type were not considered important.1

The following list of early Norman castles in Ireland was first published in the Antiquary for 1906. It is an attempt to form a complete list from contemporary historians only, that is, from Giraldus Cambrensis and the "Song of Dermot," and from the documents published in Sweetman's Calendar, of the Norman castles built in Ireland, up to the end of John's reign. Since then, the task has been taken up on a far more philosophical plan by Mr Goddard H. Orpen, whose exceptional knowledge of the history of the invasion and the families of the conquerors has enabled him to trace their settlements in Ireland as they have never been traced before. Nevertheless, it still seems worth while to republish this list, as though within a limited compass, consistent with the writer's limited knowledge, it furnishes an adequate test of the correctness of the Norman theory, on a perfectly sound basis. The list has now the advantage of being corrected from Mr Orpen's papers, and of being enlarged by identifications which he has been able to make.*

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*ANTRIM1 (Cal., i., 88).-A royal castle in 1251. Present castle modern; close to it is a large motte, marked in 25-inch O.M.

AQ'ı (Cal., i., 13). - Unidentified; perhaps an alias for one of the Limerick castles, as it was certainly in the county of Limerick.

ARDFINNAN, Tipperary (Gir., v., 386). - Built in 1185, immediately after John's coming to Ireland. No motte; castle is late Edwardian and partly converted into a modern house; one round tower has ogee windows. [B. T. S.]

ARDMAYLE, or ARMOLEN, Tipperary (Cal., i., 81).-А castle of Theobald Walter. A motte with half-moon bailey, and earthen wing walls running up its sides, exactly as stone walls do in later Norman castles. Ruins of a Perpendicular mansion close to it, and also a square tower with ogee windows. [B. T. S.] Fig. 45.

ARDNURCHER, or HORSELEAP, King's Co. (Song of Dermot and Cal., i., 145). - A castle of Meiler Fitz Henry's, built in 1192.2 An oblong motte with one certain bailey, and perhaps a second. No masonry but the remains of a wall or bridge across the fosse. [B. T. S.]

ARDREE, Kildare (Gir., v., 356, and Song). The castle built by Hugh de Lacy for Thomas the Fleming in 1182, was at Ardri, on the Barrow. There is an artificial mound at Ardree, turned into a graveyard, and near it a levelled platform above the river, on which stands Ardree House. On the west bank of the

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