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Mount Ash

Castle, motte

What is recorded here

A roughly circular mound (max. diam. c. 51m at base, c. 29m at top, H 5.8m-6.8m) with remains of fosse (max. Wth at top 11.5m, Wth at base 2m) all around. There is a large bank (Wth c. 3.7m originally, now max. Wth 7.2m) outside the fosse from NE-NW. The surface of the top of the mound is uneven and slopes downwards…

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A roughly circular mound (max. diam. c. 51m at base, c. 29m at top, H 5.8m-6.8m) with remains of fosse (max. Wth at top 11.5m, Wth at base 2m) all around. There is a large bank (Wth c. 3.7m originally, now max. Wth 7.2m) outside the fosse from NE-NW. The surface of the top of the mound is uneven and slopes downwards towards the centre where it has been quarried. Stone facing can be seen in the S face of the mound in its mid section. The outside of the bank is faced with drystone work, probably modern, which extends across the fosse at the W and NE sides of the mound and forms a facing to the base of the motte where the bank is absent. The site was partially excavated in 1872 (Reade 1875, 322), and pottery and a bronze prick spur were found near the base of the mound. A Man-made underground passage (LH006-073002-) is situated in the W portion of the motte and another (LH006-072----) is c. 50m to the W. (Orpen 1908, 254-5; M W 1908, 85; Wright 1758, bk I, pl. VI) The above 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).

From the National Monuments Service (Archaeological Survey of Ireland) record LH006-073001

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.

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Photo credits
  • National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
  • Kieran Campbell, Geograph · Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0
  • Kieran Campbell, Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • John Donnellan, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Dundalk99, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Garry Dickinson, Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Eric Jones, Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Eric Jones, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • TommyMurf, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
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