| Greenmount Motte | |||||||
| Native Name: | Móta Dhruim Chatha | ||||||
| Native Name Lang: | ga | ||||||
| Map Type: | Ireland | ||||||
| Coordinates: | 53.878°N -6.3859°W | ||||||
| Location: | Greenmount, Castlebellingham, County Louth, Ireland | ||||||
| Region: | Dee Valley | ||||||
| Type: | motte | ||||||
| Area: | 0.7ha | ||||||
| Height: | 12m (39feet) | ||||||
| Material: | earth | ||||||
| Built: | 12th/13th century | ||||||
| Epochs: | Norman Ireland | ||||||
| Cultures: | Cambro-Norman, Old English | ||||||
| Occupants: | Normans | ||||||
| Excavations: | 1830 and 1870 | ||||||
| Archaeologists: | Rev. Joseph Dullaghan, John Henry Lefroy | ||||||
| Public Access: | yes | ||||||
| Other Designation: |
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Greenmount Motte is a motte and National Monument in County Louth, Ireland.
Greenmount Motte is located 2.9km (01.8miles) west of Annagassan, overlooking the Dee Valley.
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.