Mill Mount

Castle, motte and bailey

What is recorded here

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The following description is derived from both the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1986) and the 'Archaeological Survey of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1991). diam. at base 62.5m, at summit 27.6m) with the remains of a D-shaped bailey (Wth 68m by 50m) at the W. Orpen (1908; fig. on p. 249) illustrates the bailey fosse and the line of part of another one at the SE side of the motte which is now occupied by a roadway. He also illustrates a sub-rectangular lower bailey at the NW but there is no surface evidence of this. The name 'Millmount' (the name applied to the site on the OS 6-inch map) is apparently derived from the fact that there was a windmill erected on the motte in the fifteenth century. This was replaced in 1810 by a Martello tower (IFC Schools MSS vol. 680, 200), the remains of which still stand on the summit of the motte. The bailey is clearly defined on all but the N side by a steep escarpment and is now occupied by a housing development. A wall marking the line of the so-called lower bailey is of modern origin and is hardly part of the original defences as the N side of the D-shaped bailey is likely to have returned onto the NW side of the motte. (Orpen 1908, 246-50; CLAJ 1931, 406; CLAJ 1943, 243-4)

From the National Monuments Service (Archaeological Survey of Ireland) record LH024-041009

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Photo credits

National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
Andreas F. Borchert, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Gerd Eichmann, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Jonathan Billinger, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0

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