The Moat — Donode Big

A Recorded Historical Monument (HMO 3473). At the SSW end of an extensively quarried N-S ridge. According to Tickell (1960, 368 (Fn. 9), Sir Roland FitzEustace, who died in 1486, possessed, inter alia, a castle at Donode. The site of the castle is now called ‘the moat, a rath some 70 feet high’. A natural hillock appears to have been scarped into an oval shaped area (c. 100m E-W; c. 70m N-S) and the base enclosed by a substantial counter-scarp bank (H. 4.5m) and internal fosse. The interior was divided slightly unequally by deep N-S fosse (Wth. 2m, D. 3.2m), with a tall, steep-sided motte to the W (H. of motte over base of fosse c. 11.5m; upper surface c. 23m N-S; c. 20m E-W), and a lower, slightly smaller bailey to the E (upper surface 19m E-W; 17m N-S). The summit of the motte is very uneven and appears to have been partially dug out. The bailey’s defences are augmented by a fosse and outer bank girdling the upper surface N-E-S. The monument is eroded along the S by a combination of soil creep and animal grazing, and a pit containing charcoal and burnt and unburnt bone is visible in an eroded area on the N face of the bailey, possibly a habitation layer. (CUCAP AHK 25 (1963); APH 94 (1966)) Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 14 June 2012