What is recorded here

Haarian’s Moat still stands on the southern point of Bannow Island, a grass-covered mound perhaps born from the first Anglo-Norman landing in 1169. Robert FitzStephen and Maurice de Prendergast may have thrown earth into that shape within hours of wading ashore, turning a triangular seaboard into a defensive anchor before building stone. The mound overlookes a shallow bay where sand bars have since choked the entrance, preserving the sudden violence of that arrival in ordinary grass and soil.

Bannow Bay is a shallow sub-triangular bay (max. L c. 7 km NE-SW; max. Wth c. 2.4 km NW-SE), with an entrance (Wth c. 1.7 km) on the S side. The S end of Bannow Island (L c. 1.4 km N-S; max. Wth c. 600m E-W) occupies the E side of the entrance to the bay, which is now greatly narrowed by sand bars attached to the shore on the W side of the entrance while the island is now attached to the shore on the E side. The first landing of the Anglo-Normans in Ireland occurred in May 1169 when Robert FitzStephen and Maurice de Prendergast with a force of about 300 landed at Bannow Island (Redmond 1899, 231-8). We are told that they made their encampment on the shore, and it is likely that they would have fortified the position immediately with a motte. This earthwork is situated on a triangular point towards the S end of Bannow Island, with the sea to the W and a NE-SW natural valley (Wth of top c. 80-100m) to the E. This was first identified as Haarian’s Moat by O’Broin (1921, 126), and it is still known locally as this. It is a circular, grass-covered mound (diam. of base 25.2m E-W; 24m N-S), the top of which (diam. 12m E-W; 10.5m N-S) slopes down to the S. The height varies from 2m at S to 3.2m at E. There is no evidence of a fosse, but a N-S trench (Wth of base 3m; ext. D 0.7m; L 24m) at W and an E-W farm laneway dug into the slope at N (Wth of top 4.7m; D at S 1.6m; D at N 0.6m) exaggerate the apparent height of the mound on these sides (H 2.6-2.9m). A church (WX045-043----) is c. 170m to the SE, on the other side of the small valley. This mound has been identified as a possible pillow mound or rabbit warren, deriving the name from Hare-een (little hare – ie. rabbit) (Murphy 2016, 301-06). Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of revised upload: 25 January, 2017 Amended: 1 May, 2020

Built by the FitzGerald dynasty, likely in the late 12th or early 13th century, Bannow Island motte was a strategic stronghold in the Norman colonization of eastern Ireland. Its location on Bannow Bay provided control over key maritime routes and local resources.

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