Castle — motte in Coolnagun

Situated on a low E-W ridge in good pasture overlooking moated site (WM002-020----) 110m to the S. An old roadway running E-W runs past the base of the motte on the N side the outline of which is depicted on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map and which is visible on Digital Globe aerial photographs taken November 2011. A building marked as 'Coolnagun Castle' on the 1911 ed. OS 25-inch map stands 250m to NW. Although designated a motte, this monument could possibly be a platform-type ringfort later re-used as a motte. A fairly high steep-sided flat-topped mound (top diam. c. 13m) defined by a scarp the base of which is enclosed by a fosse with the remains of an external earthen bank which is best preserved from W-N. The outer bank is badly defaced from S-W where it is intersected by a modern field fence, the fosse has been filled inform S-SW. There is a modern gap in the NW sector and traces of a causeway, also modern, across the fosse at S. The top of the mound is very uneven due to disturbance and slip. There is an OS trig. station on the summit of the motte. A wide low bank runs in an E direction from near the S side of the earthwork. The significance of this bank is not obvious. Outside the monument on the N side there are very slight traces of an old field bank running in an E-W direction. See attached profile of monument surveyed and drawn by the ASI. Compiled by: Frank Coyne & Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 23 November 2016