Greenmount Motte


Greenmount Motte is a motte and National Monument in County Louth, Ireland.

Location

Greenmount Motte is located 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.
The motte at Greenmount was formerly known as Droim Chatha. A Nicholas of Drumcath is mentioned in a documents of 1310 and 1328.
The foundations of an elongated chamber are visible in the bailey.
A scabbard-mount with runic inscriptions 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. Also found were animal bones, charcoal, burnt earth, a bronze axe and a bone harp peg with friction marks.
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.