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CLONMACNOISE-DOWNPATRICK

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CLONMACNOISE, King's Co. (Cal., i., 94).—First contemporary mention 1215; the Annals of Loch Cè say it was built in 1214 "by the foreigners." A royal castle. A large motte with bailey attached; the wing walls of the bailey run up the motte. The importance of the castle is shown by the fact that a stone keep was added not very long after it was built. [B. T. S.]

*COLLACHT (Gir., v., 355).-Castle of John of Hereford. Collacht appears to be a scribal error for Tullaght, now Tullow, Carlow.' The site of the castle is marked on the 6-inch O.M.; it has been visited by Mr G. H. Orpen, who found very clear indications of a motte and bailey. (See Appendix L.)

CROMETH (Cal., i., 91).—Castle of Maurice FitzGerald. Supposed to be Croom, Limerick, though the identification is by no means certain. There are the ruins of an Edwardian castle at Croom; no motte. [E. S. A.]

DOWNPATRICK, Down (Gir., v., 345).-The traveller approaching Downpatrick sees a number of small hills which no doubt have once been islands rising out of the swamps of the Quoyle. of the Quoyle. On one of these hills stands the town and its cathedral; on another, to the east, but separated from the town by a very steep descent and a brook, stands a motte and bailey of the usual Norman type. It occupies the whole summit of the small hill, so that the banks of the bailey are at a great height above the outer ditch, which is carried round the base of the hill (compare Skipsea). The motte, which is not a very large one, has had an earthen breastwork round the top, now much broken away. Its ditch falls into the ditch of the bailey, but at a higher level. The bailey is semilunar, extending round about three-quarters of the

1 Butler's Notices of the Castle of Trim, p. 13.

2 Eng. Hist. Rev., xxii., 458.

circumference of the motte. There is not the slightest sign of masonry. As the size of this work has been greatly exaggerated, it is as well to say that when measured on the 25-inch O.M. with a planimeter, its area proves to be 3.9 acres; the area of the motte and its ditch .9, leaving 3 acres for the bailey. [E. S. A.] Fig. 45.

This thoroughly Norman-French castle, which was formerly called a Danish fort, has lately been baptised as Rathceltchair, and supposed to be the work of a mythical hero of the 1st century A.D. Mr Orpen,

however, has disposed of this fancy by showing that the name Rathceltchair belonged in pre-Norman times to the enclosure of the ancient church and monastery which stood on the other hill. We may therefore unhesitatingly ascribe this motte-castle to John de Courcy, who first put up a slender fortification within the town walls. to defend himself against temporary attack, but afterwards built a regular castle, for which this island offered a most favourable site. A stone castle was built inside the town at a later period; it is now entirely destroyed.

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DROGHEDA, Louth (Cal., i., 93).—First mention 1203, but Mr Orpen thinks it probable that it was one of the castles built by Hugh de Lacy, who died in 1186. A high motte, with a round and a square bailey, just outside the town walls; called the Mill Mount in the time of Cromwell, who occupied it; he mentions that it had a good ditch, strongly palisadoed. No stone

1 Eng. Hist. Rev., xxii., 441.

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2 "Exile municipium," Giraldus, 345. See Eng. Hist. Rev., xx., 717. 3 Annals of Ulster, 1177.

4 See Orpen, "Motes and Castles in County Louth," Journ. R. S. A. I., xxxviii., 249. The town walls are later than the castle, and were built up to it.

5 Cited by Westropp, Journ. R. S. A. 1., 1904, paper on "Irish Motes and Early Norman Castles."

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DULEEK-DURROW

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castle, though much of the bailey wall remains; a late martello tower on top of motte. [B. T. S.] Fig. 45.

DULEEK, Meath (the castrum Duvelescense of Giraldus, v., 313).-Probably first built by Hugh de Lacy; restored by Raymond le Gros in 1173. The motte is destroyed, but an old weaver living in the village in 1906 says that it existed in the time of his father, who used to roll stones down it in his youth. It was in the angle between two streams, and there is still a slight trace of it. No stone castle. [B. T. S.]

DUNAMASE, Queen's Co. (Dumath, Cal., i., 100).— First mentioned in 1215 as a castle of William Marshall's, which makes it not unlikely that it was originally built by Strongbow. The plan of this castle is the motte-and-bailey plan, but the place of the motte is taken by a natural rock, isolated by a ditch. There are three baileys, descending the hill. The stone keep on the summit is of the 15th or 16th century. [B. T.

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DUNGARVAN, Waterford (Cal., i., 89).-Granted to Thomas Fitz Antony in 1215. To the west of the town. is a motte called Gallowshill; it has no bailey, but some trace of a circumvallation. The castle east of the river is not earlier than the 14th or 15th century. [B. T. S.]

*DURROW, King's Co. (Gir., v., 387).—A castle of Hugh de Lacy's; he was murdered while he was building it, because he had chosen the enclosure of the church for his bailey. A plan in Journ. R. S. A. I., xxix., 227, shows clearly the motte and bailey, though the writer mistakes for separate mounds what are clearly broken portions of the vallum. It is possible that the bailey may have followed the line of the ancient rath of the church, but it would almost certainly be a much stronger affair.

1 Annals of Ulster, 1186.

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