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85-467: Dunsany may refer to: Dunsany Castle and Demesne , County Meath, Ireland Baron of Dunsany , "Lord Dunsany" or "Dunsany", the holders of the Dunsany estate Dunsany, County Meath , a townland and hamlet, named for the adjacent castle and demesne Christopher Plunkett, 1st Baron of Dunsany (1410–1463), Irish peer Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany ,

170-526: A "stalwart house ... glittering with beauty in every part". Mottes were made out of earth and flattened on top, and it can be very hard to determine whether a mound is artificial or natural without excavation. Some were also built over older artificial structures, such as Bronze Age barrows . The size of mottes varied considerably, with these mounds being 3 metres to 30 metres in height (10–100 feet), and from 30 to 90 metres (100 to 300 ft) in diameter. This minimum height of 3 metres (10 feet) for mottes

255-505: A certain number of days each year, by way of a guided tour, for a fee. Tours around the nature reserve with small groups are possible as of 2021, though places are very limited. The castle and demesne have been used for filming on occasions, for example for Braveheart (the wedding scene was filmed in the Church of St Nicholas, for example) and the remake of The Magnificent Ambersons . Motte and bailey A motte-and-bailey castle

340-591: A consequence of the centralising of royal authority in the 12th century. David I encouraged Norman and French nobles to settle in Scotland, introducing a feudal mode of landholding and the use of castles as a way of controlling the contested lowlands. The quasi-independent polity of Galloway , which had resisted the rule of David and his predecessors, was a particular focus for this colonisation. The size of these Scottish castles, primarily wooden motte and bailey constructions, varied considerably, from larger designs such as

425-406: A dún is a fort. It is believed that the eastern, or both of these, were later used as early Anglo-Norman points of defence, possibly on the motte and bailey style. The western one, with a formation sometimes likened to two dunes, was memorialised by Oliver St John Gogarty . There is a third mound further to the west also. Dunsany Castle began with four stone towers, with walls between and

510-415: A few soldiers, whilst larger mottes could be equipped with a much grander building. Many wooden keeps were designed with bretèches , or brattices, small balconies that projected from the upper floors of the building, allowing defenders to cover the base of the fortification wall. The early 12th-century chronicler Lambert of Ardres described the wooden keep on top of the motte at the castle of Ardres , where

595-410: A more gentle incline. Where available, layers of different sorts of earth, such as clay, gravel and chalk , would be used alternatively to build in strength to the design. Layers of turf could also be added to stabilise the motte as it was built up, or a core of stones placed as the heart of the structure to provide strength. Similar issues applied to the defensive ditches, where designers found that

680-405: A natural hill could be used, scarping could produce a motte without the need to create an artificial mound, but more commonly much of the motte would have to be constructed by hand. Four methods existed for building a mound and a tower: the mound could either be built first, and a tower placed on top of it; the tower could alternatively be built on the original ground surface and then buried within

765-570: A range of different castle types as motta , however, and there may not have been as many genuine motte-and-bailey castles in southern Italy as was once thought on the basis of the documentary evidence alone. In addition, there is evidence of the Norman crusaders building a motte and bailey using sand and wood in Egypt in 1221 during the Fifth Crusade . Motte-and-bailey castles became a less popular design in

850-630: A similar transition occurred in the 13th and 14th centuries. One factor was the introduction of stone into castle buildings. The earliest stone castles had emerged in the 10th century, with stone keeps being built on mottes along the Catalonia frontier and several, including Château de Langeais , in Angers. Although wood was a more powerful defensive material than was once thought, stone became increasingly popular for military and symbolic reasons. Some existing motte-and-bailey castles were converted to stone, with

935-532: A stronghold and bailey construction surrounded by water, and widely built in the late medieval period. In England, motte-and-bailey earthworks were put to various uses over later years; in some cases, mottes were turned into garden features in the 18th century, or reused as military defences during the Second World War . Today, almost no mottes of motte-and-bailey castles remain in regular use in Europe, with one of

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1020-500: A wedding Mass was celebrated there (with a temporary roof installed) in the early 2000s, with the Bishop of Meath. A feature of the church was a highly-decorated font. There is a walled garden, around 3.4 acres (1.4 ha) in size, which as of 2000, still produced fruit and vegetables for the estate. A cottage, historically occupied by the senior gardener, is built into the walls of the garden. Nearby are working beehives. Also within

1105-400: A yard inside, in the late 12th century, construction being thought to have begun in 1180 on the orders of Hugh de Lacy. Foundations and the lower parts of the four main towers are likely original, and some interior spaces, notably an old kitchen, but much additional work has been carried out, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the current castle is more than three times the size of

1190-471: Is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey , surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade . Relatively easy to build with unskilled labour, but still militarily formidable, these castles were built across northern Europe from the 10th century onwards, spreading from Normandy and Anjou in France, into

1275-515: Is a hamlet, with a post office store, Catholic church and primary school, a GAA pitch with a clubhouse and bar and a mix of private housing with a small local authority development. The former Dower House is located just east of the hamlet. The demesne can be reached from the N3 road and from Trim, and is signposted from the Navan Road, from Dunshaughlin and from Warrenstown, near the former railway station for

1360-524: Is a modernised Anglo- Norman castle, started c. 1180 / 1181 by Hugh de Lacy , who also commissioned the original Killeen Castle , nearby, and the famous Trim Castle . It is one of Ireland's oldest homes in continuous occupation, possibly the longest occupied by a single family, having been held by the Cusack family and their descendants by marriage, the Plunketts , from foundation to the present day. The castle

1445-641: Is a particularly western and northern European phenomenon, most numerous in France and Britain, but also seen in Denmark, Germany, Southern Italy and occasionally beyond. European castles first emerged between the Loire river and the Rhine in the 9th and 10th centuries, after the fall of the Carolingian Empire resulted in its territory being divided among individual lords and princes and local territories became threatened by

1530-430: Is entered through an outer lobby and then an inner lobby with a worked plaster ceiling, both of which contain military memorabilia. Beyond are the central hallway, featuring the principal stairway and a vaulted ceiling, and a more private secondary hall. The ground floor holds the grand dining room, with portraits of past family members, the former estate office, and a fine arts and crafts billiards room. Also present in

1615-401: Is in the "Gothic Revival" style, with a "beehive" ceiling. Also on this floor is a secondary stairway (where a " priest's hole " for hiding Catholic priests formerly existed). The third floor holds ornate bedrooms, some with attached bathrooms, and the principal one also with a dressing room. One of the bedrooms is reputedly haunted. The demesne is surrounded by a drystone wall, much of which

1700-401: Is in the neo-Gothic style, with a tower lodge, mock porticullis, and two sets of white gates, for a carriage entrance and a footpath. It displays the coat of arms of the 14th Lord Dunsany, quartered with those of his two wives. It is disused since around 1960, and its carriageway is grown-over. The main entrance to the grounds today, opposite a medieval pilgrim cross near Dunsany crossroads, has

1785-560: Is not medieval in origin. The word motte is the French version of the Latin mota , and in France, the word motte , generally used for a clump of turf , came to refer to a turf bank, and by the 12th century was used to refer to the castle design itself. The word "bailey" comes from the Norman-French baille , or basse-cour , referring to a low yard. In medieval sources, the Latin term castellum

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1870-417: Is now a National Monument, with remnants of lofts and living quarters, and inside and around are tombs of family members and local residents, including the 20th Lord Dunsany. It fell out of use, perhaps damaged by Cromwellian forces, and a new church was built at Dunsany Crossroads, but it is still consecrated. It was partly restored for the filming of the wedding scene from the film Braveheart in 1994, and

1955-462: Is surrounded by its demesne , the inner part of the formerly extensive Dunsany estate. The demesne holds a historic church, a walled garden, a stone farm complex, and an ice house, among other features, and is home to a wide range of fauna. Dunsany Castle and demesne , and other remnants of the family estates, are situated in and near the townland of Dunsany, County Meath, between the historic town of Trim and Dunshaughlin . At nearby Dunsany Cross

2040-400: Is usually intended to exclude smaller mounds which often had non-military purposes. In England and Wales, only 7% of mottes were taller than 10 metres (33 feet) high; 24% were between 10 and 5 metres (33 and 16 ft), and 69% were less than 5 metres (16 feet) tall. A motte was protected by a ditch around it, which would typically have also been a source of the earth and soil for constructing

2125-552: The Angevins , it is argued, began to build them to protect against the Viking raids, and the design spread to deal with the attacks along the Slav and Hungarian frontiers. Another argument is that, given the links between this style of castle and the Norman style, who were of Viking descent, it was in fact originally a Viking design, transported to Normandy and Anjou . The motte-and-bailey castle

2210-602: The Bass of Inverurie to smaller castles like Balmaclellan . Motte-and-bailey castles were introduced to Ireland following the Norman invasion of Ireland that began between 1166 and 1171 under first Richard de Clare and then Henry II of England , with the occupation of southern and eastern Ireland by a number of Anglo-Norman barons. The rapid Norman success depended on key economic and military advantages; their cavalry enabled Norman successes in battles, and castles enabled them to control

2295-611: The Holy Roman Empire , as well as the Low Countries it controlled, in the 11th century, when these castles were popularized in the area that became the Netherlands . The Normans introduced the design into England and Wales. Motte-and-bailey castles were adopted in Scotland, Ireland, and Denmark in the 12th and 13th centuries. By the end of the 13th century, the design was largely superseded by alternative forms of fortification, but

2380-456: The Holy Roman Empire , which then spanned central Europe. They now typically took the form of an enclosure on a hilltop, or, on lower ground, a tall, free-standing tower (German Bergfried ). The largest castles had well-defined inner and outer courts, but no mottes. The motte-and-bailey design began to spread into Alsace and the northern Alps from France during the first half of the 11th century, spreading further into Bohemia and Austria in

2465-524: The Low Countries encouraged castle building in a number of regions from the late 12th century to the 14th century. In Flanders , the first motte and bailey castles began relatively early at the end of the 11th century. The rural motte-and-bailey castles followed the traditional design, but the urban castles often lacked the traditional baileys, using parts of the town to fulfil this role instead. Motte-and-bailey castles in Flanders were particularly numerous in

2550-618: The castle in Norwich and 27 for the castle in Cambridge . The second and third waves of castle building in the late-11th century were led by the major magnates and then the more junior knights on their new estates. Some regional patterns in castle building can be seen – relatively few castles were built in East Anglia compared to the west of England or the Marches , for example; this was probably due to

2635-481: The keep and the gatehouse usually the first parts to be upgraded. Shell keeps were built on many mottes, circular stone shells running around the top of the motte, sometimes protected by a further chemise , or low protective wall, around the base. By the 14th century, a number of motte and bailey castles had been converted into powerful stone fortresses. Newer castle designs placed less emphasis on mottes. Square Norman keeps built in stone became popular following

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2720-591: The terpen gave way to hege wieren , non-residential defensive towers, often on motte-like mounds, owned by the increasingly powerful nobles and landowners. On Zeeland the local lords had a high degree of independence during the 12th and 13th centuries, owing to the wider conflict for power between neighbouring Flanders and Friesland. The Zeeland lords had also built terpen mounds, but these gave way to larger werven constructions–effectively mottes–which were later termed bergen . Sometimes both terpen and werven are called vliedburg , or " refuge castles ". During

2805-427: The "first storey was on the surface of the ground, where were cellars and granaries, and great boxes, tuns, casks, and other domestic utensils. In the storey above were the dwelling and common living rooms of the residents in which were the larders, the rooms of the bakers and butlers, and the great chamber in which the lord and his wife slept ... In the upper storey of the house were garret rooms ... In this storey also

2890-452: The 12th and 13th centuries a number of terpen mounds were turned into werven mottes, and some new werven mottes were built from scratch. Around 323 known or probable motte and bailey castles of this design are believed to have been built within the borders of the modern Netherlands . In neighbouring Denmark, motte-and-bailey castles appeared somewhat later in the 12th and 13th centuries and in more limited numbers than elsewhere, due to

2975-485: The 14th century to a castrum-curia model, where the castle was built with a fortified bailey and a fortified mound, somewhat smaller than the typical motte. By the 12th century, the castles in Western Germany began to thin in number, due to changes in land ownership, and various mottes were abandoned. In Germany and Denmark, motte-and-bailey castles also provided the model for the later wasserburg , or "water castle",

3060-573: The Conqueror , as the Duke of Normandy , is believed to have adopted the motte-and-bailey design from neighbouring Anjou. Duke William went on to prohibit the building of castles without his consent through the Consuetudines et Justicie , with his legal definition of castles centring on the classic motte-and-bailey features of ditching, banking and palisading. By the 11th century, castles were built throughout

3145-551: The Magyars and the Norse. Against this background, various explanations have been put forward to explain the origins and spread of the motte-and-bailey design across western and northern Europe; there is often a tension among the academic community between explanations that stress military and social reasons for the rise of this design. One suggestion is that these castles were built particularly in order to protect against external attack –

3230-588: The River Skane, had a lodge made of black limestone, the Black Lodge, which was vandalised in the 1980s. It displayed the coat of arms of the 14th Lord Dunsany and may have been the work of James Shiel. The road facing it is said to be haunted by a headless horseman at night. The Church of St Nicholas (of Myra), known locally as the Abbey , was built in the 1440s on the site of an earlier church (standing in 1305). It

3315-418: The appearance of a Gothic ruin but is a sham . It conceals a residential gatehouse lodge, and was originally built for arrivals smaller than carriages, such as horse-buggies and carts, and riding parties. Just inside this gate is the former Steward's House, a sunken stone-built structure, and just to the west on the public road is an access road for the demesne farm. A third gateway, at Dunsany Bridge, over

3400-455: The area, at Drumree . The next village is Kilmessan , and today Dunsany and Kilmessan together form a single Catholic parish. To the left and right of the front of the current castle are two mounds, believed to be artificial constructions, at least one (to the east) possibly part of an earlier Irish fortification, which would explain the name of the district – Dunsany is Dún Samhain in Irish, and

3485-562: The best-known castle design, they were not always the most numerous in any given area. A popular alternative was the ringwork castle, involving a palisade being built on top of a raised earth rampart , protected by a ditch. The choice of motte and bailey or ringwork was partially driven by terrain, as mottes were typically built on low ground, and on deeper clay and alluvial soils. Another factor may have been speed, as ringworks were faster to build than mottes. Some ringwork castles were later converted into motte-and-bailey designs, by filling in

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3570-517: The building of motte-and-bailey castles in Normandy accelerated as well, resulting in a broad swath of these castles across the Norman territories, around 741 motte-and-bailey castles in England and Wales alone. Having become well established in Normandy, Germany and Britain, motte-and-bailey castles began to be adopted elsewhere, mainly in northern Europe, during the 12th and 13th centuries. Conflict through

3655-405: The castle. Wherever possible, nearby streams and rivers would be dammed or diverted, creating water-filled moats, artificial lakes and other forms of water defences. In practice, there was a wide number of variations to this common design. A castle could have more than one bailey: at Warkworth Castle an inner and an outer bailey was constructed, or alternatively, several baileys could flank

3740-522: The centre of the ringwork to produce a flat-topped motte. The reasons for why this decision was taken are unclear; motte-and-bailey castles may have been felt to be more prestigious, or easier to defend; another theory is that like the terpen in the Netherlands, or Vorburg and Hauptburg in Lower Rhineland, raising the height of the castle was done to create a drier site. The motte-and-bailey castle

3825-516: The construction of a smaller design than that later seen on the sites concerned. Taking into account estimates of the likely available manpower during the period, historians estimate that the larger mottes might have taken between four and nine months to build. This contrasted favourably with stone keeps of the period, which typically took up to ten years to build. Very little skilled labour was required to build motte and bailey castles, which made them very attractive propositions if forced peasant labour

3910-502: The creation of local fiefdoms and feudal landowners, and areas without this method of governance rarely built these castles. Yet another theory suggests that the design emerged as a result of the pressures of space on ringworks and that the earliest motte-and-baileys were converted ringworks. Finally, there may be a link between the local geography and the building of motte-and-bailey castles, which are usually built on low-lying areas, in many cases subject to regular flooding. Regardless of

3995-432: The date for the first motte and bailey castle, at Vincy , back to 979. The castles were built by the more powerful lords of Anjou in the late 10th and 11th centuries, in particular Fulk III and his son, Geoffrey II , who built a great number of them between 987 and 1060. Many of these earliest castles would have appeared quite crude and rustic by later standards, belying the power and prestige of their builders. William

4080-438: The demesne are stone-built farm and stable yards, an ice-house and wells. There is a home within the stable yard. There is also at least one ruined cottage near the walls. As mentioned, mounds on either side of the castle are believed to be motte sites; the 19th Lord Dunsany is buried on one of them. In front of the castle is a lawn and a ha-ha protective ditch, beyond which estate farmland begins. Passing under one of

4165-665: The demesne fields have historically established names. The River Skane runs through the woodland, in a stretch called the Railway Wood , alongside the old Dublin-Navan railway line. It is a tributary of the River Boyne and did contain fish in the past. It is joined near the Glane Road by the small River Gansey or Ganzey, from Killeen and Corballis, which crosses through Dunsany lands. The grounds are private and access normally requires prior arrangement. The castle can be visited on

4250-413: The earthworks remain a prominent feature in many countries. A motte-and-bailey castle was made up of two structures: a motte (a type of mound – often artificial – topped with a wooden or stone structure known as a keep ); and at least one bailey (a fortified enclosure built next to the motte). The constructive elements themselves are ancient, but the term motte-and-bailey is a relatively modern one and

4335-452: The enclosure is a citadel, or keep, which commands the whole circuit of the defences. The entrance to the fortress is by means of a bridge, which, rising from the outer side of the moat and supported on posts as it ascends, reaches to the top of the mound". At Durham Castle , contemporaries described how the motte-and-bailey superstructure arose from the "tumulus of rising earth" with a keep rising "into thin air, strong within and without" with

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4420-408: The first documentary evidence of a native Welsh castle being at Cymmer in 1116. These timber castles, including Tomen y Rhodywdd, Tomen y Faerdre , Gaer Penrhôs , were of equivalent quality to the equivalent Norman fortifications in the area, and it can prove difficult to distinguish the builders of some sites from the archaeological evidence alone. Motte-and-bailey castles in Scotland emerged as

4505-456: The first such construction in Langeais in 994. Several were built in England and Wales after the conquest; by 1216 there were around 100 in the country. These massive keeps could be either erected on top of settled, well-established mottes or could have mottes built around them – so-called "buried" keeps. The ability of mottes, especially newly built mottes, to support the heavier stone structures,

4590-547: The hands of the Barons of Dunsany , who enjoyed almost uninterrupted ownership and control, aside from issues around Oliver Cromwell's operations in Ireland (the then Lady Dunsany defended the castle against an initial approach but the family were later forced out in 1649, some dying on the way to Connaught), and the aftermath of some other troubles between Ireland and England. They were cousins of Saint Oliver Plunket . The Dunsany Estate

4675-426: The higher peaks where mottes were unnecessary. In Flanders, a decline came in the 13th century as feudal society changed. In the Netherlands, cheap brick started to be used in castles from the 13th century onwards in place of earthworks, and many mottes were levelled, to help develop the surrounding, low-lying fields; these "levelled mottes" are a particularly Dutch phenomenon. In Denmark, motte and baileys gave way in

4760-495: The historic castle core, off a spinal corridor ("the passage"), are the ancient kitchen and a more modern one, a bedroom suite, and other rooms. The corridor in turn connects to buildings on the castle's internal yard, with living spaces and the gallery of the artist Edward Plunkett, the late 20th Lord Dunsany. On the first floor of the historic castle are the library, and drawing-room, which has Stapleton plasterwork from 1780. The library, which may have been worked on by James Shiel,

4845-455: The identification of these earthwork remains can be contentious. A small number of motte-and-bailey castles were built outside of northern Europe. In the late-12th century, the Normans invaded southern Italy and Sicily ; although they had the technology to build more modern designs, in many cases wooden motte-and-bailey castles were built instead for reasons of speed. The Italians came to refer to

4930-543: The later periods. Larger mottes took disproportionately more effort to build than their smaller equivalents, because of the volumes of earth involved. The largest mottes in England, such as that of Thetford Castle , are estimated to have required up to 24,000 man-days of work; smaller ones required perhaps as little as 1,000. Contemporary accounts talk of some mottes being built in a matter of days, although these low figures have led to suggestions by historians that either these figures were an underestimate, or that they refer to

5015-499: The latter half of the 20th century. Since the 1990s, work has been carried out to restore parts of the castle, and some of the Dunsany properties in the demesne, the hamlet at Dunsany crossroads, and in Trim. The family's other castle, the largest in Ireland but a ruin, Trim Castle , was transferred to the State in 1993, such a transfer having been refused in the late 19th century. The castle

5100-791: The less feudal society. Except for a handful of mote and bailey castles in Norway, built in the first half of the 11th century and including the royal residence in Oslo , the design did not play a role further north in Scandinavia. The Norman expansion into Wales slowed in the 12th century but remained an ongoing threat to the remaining native rulers. In response, the Welsh princes and lords began to build their own castles, frequently motte-and-bailey designs, usually in wood. There are indications that this may have begun from 1111 onwards under Prince Cadwgan ap Bleddyn , with

5185-576: The mid-medieval period. In France, they were not built after the start of the 12th century, and mottes ceased to be built in most of England after around 1170, although they continued to be erected in Wales and along the Marches. Many motte-and-bailey castles were occupied relatively briefly; in England, many had been abandoned or allowed to lapse into disrepair by the 12th century. In the Low Countries and Germany,

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5270-416: The more prestigious Höhenburgen built on high ground, but this is usually regarded as unlikely. In many cases, bergfrieds were converted into motte and bailey designs by burying existing castle towers within the mounds. In England, William invaded from Normandy in 1066, resulting in three phases of castle building in England, around 80% of which were in the motte-and-bailey pattern. The first of these

5355-409: The motte, as at Windsor Castle . Some baileys had two mottes, such as those at Lincoln . Some mottes could be square instead of round, such as at Cabal Tump (Herefordshire). Instead of single ditches, occasionally double-ditch defences were built, as seen at Berkhamsted . Local geography and the intent of the builder produced many unique designs. Various methods were used to build mottes. Where

5440-429: The mound itself. A keep and a protective wall would usually be built on top of the motte. Some walls would be large enough to have a wall-walk around them, and the outer walls of the motte and the wall-walk could be strengthened by filling in the gap between the wooden walls with earth and stones, allowing it to carry more weight; this was called a garillum . Smaller mottes could support only simple towers with room for

5525-417: The mound; the tower could potentially be built on the original ground surface and then partially buried within the mound, the buried part forming a cellar beneath; or the tower could be built first, and the mound added later. Regardless of the sequencing, artificial mottes had to be built by piling up earth; this work was undertaken by hand, using wooden shovels and hand-barrows, possibly with picks as well in

5610-407: The newly conquered territories. The new lords rapidly built castles to protect their possessions; most of these were motte-and-bailey constructions, many of them strongly defended. Unlike Wales, the indigenous Irish lords do not appear to have constructed their own castles in any significant number during the period. Between 350 and 450 motte-and-bailey castles are believed to remain today, although

5695-565: The original. The castle, along with Killeen Castle, was held by the Cusacks , initially on behalf of the de Lacys, and passed by marriage in the early 15th century to the Plunketts. Originally, it and Killeen lay on a single estate but the first generation of Plunketts gave Killeen to the eldest son, and Dunsany to the younger, Christopher, following which the estate was divided, and the Castle descended in

5780-401: The rear of the castle in 1910. Designed by George Jack from the office of William Morris , it was built in an "Arts & Crafts" style by 1914 and contains a spacious billiard room, two bedrooms, and other facilities. The castle was the scene for an early fashion show by Sybil Connolly , in 1953, which was featured on the cover of Life magazine. The dower house and its lands were sold in

5865-419: The reasons behind the initial popularity of the motte-and-bailey design, however, there is widespread agreement that the castles were first widely adopted in Normandy and Angevin territory in the 10th and 11th centuries. The earliest purely documentary evidence for motte-and-bailey castles in Normandy and Angers comes from between 1020 and 1040, but a combination of documentary and archaeological evidence pushes

5950-430: The relatively settled and prosperous nature of the east of England and reflected a shortage of unfree labour for constructing mottes. In Wales, the first wave of the Norman castles was again predominantly made of wood in a mixture of motte-and-bailey and ringwork designs. The Norman invaders spread up the valleys, using this form of castle to occupy their new territories. After the Norman conquest of England and Wales,

6035-592: The roads is a sunken path by which staff could discreetly move from the walled farmyard complex to some of the fields. The lands contain a mix of farmland, marsh and mature mixed woodland; a flower garden also existed until 1950. As of 2021, parts are in the process of being rewilded by the 21st Lord Dunsany, Randal Plunkett . The lands are home to a range of wildlife, including, as of 2000, owls, pheasants, sparrowhawks, kestrels, herons, moorhens and jays, as well as rabbits and hares, foxes and badgers, squirrels, deer and otters. Six stretches of woodland and many of

6120-508: The south along the Lower Rhine , a fiercely contested border. Further along the coast in Friesland , the relatively decentralised, egalitarian society initially discouraged the building of motte and bailey castles, although terpen , raised "dwelling mounds" which lacked towers and were usually lower in height than a typical motte, were created instead. By the end of the medieval period, however,

6205-472: The subsequent years. This form of castle was closely associated with the colonisation of newly cultivated areas within the Empire, as new lords were granted lands by the emperor and built castles close to the local gród , or town. motte-and-bailey castle building substantially enhanced the prestige of local nobles, and it has been suggested that their early adoption was because they were a cheaper way of imitating

6290-407: The terrain. The bailey would contain a wide number of buildings, including a hall, kitchens, a chapel, barracks, stores, stables, forges or workshops, and was the centre of the castle's economic activity. The bailey was connected to the motte by a bridge, or, as often seen in England, by steps cut into the motte. Typically the ditch of the motte and the bailey joined, forming a figure of eight around

6375-548: The title Dunsany . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dunsany&oldid=1120557673 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Dunsany Castle and Demesne Dunsany Castle ( Irish : Caisleán Dhún Samhnaí ), Dunsany, County Meath , Ireland,

6460-462: The watchmen and the servants appointed to keep the house took their sleep". Wooden structures on mottes could be protected by skins and hides to prevent their being easily set alight during a siege. The bailey was an enclosed courtyard overlooked by the high motte and surrounded by a wooden fence called a palisade and another ditch. The bailey was often kidney-shaped to fit against a circular motte but could be made in other shapes according to

6545-522: The wider the ditch was dug, the deeper and steeper the sides of the scarp could be, making it more defensive. Although militarily a motte was, as Norman Pounds describes it, "almost indestructible", they required frequent maintenance. Soil wash was a problem, particularly with steeper mounds, and mottes could be clad with wood or stone slabs to protect them. Over time, some mottes suffered from subsidence or damage from flooding, requiring repairs and stabilisation work. Although motte-and-bailey castles are

6630-493: The writer and playwright "Lord Dunsany" Dunsany's Chess , an asymmetric variant of chess created by Lord Dunsany Horace Plunkett , first head of the Department of Agriculture in Ireland and the pioneer of the cooperative movement there Randal Plunkett, 21st Baron of Dunsany , rewilding advocate and film director Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with

6715-412: Was available, as was the case after the Norman invasion of England. Where the local workforce had to be paid – such as at Clones in Ireland, built in 1211 using imported labourers – the costs would rise quickly, in this case reaching £20. The type of soil would make a difference to the design of the motte, as clay soils could support a steeper motte, whilst sandier soils meant that a motte would need

6800-579: Was built during the Great Famine as a relief work. The wall is interrupted by two formal entrances, on the Dublin Road, a farm entrance on the same road, and a closed entrance near the former railway line and the Skane River , on the Glane Road. The former main gateway, nearest to Dunshaughlin, leads to a long avenue, which abruptly reveals the castle to arrivals. Built in its current form around 1830, it

6885-402: Was certainly effective against assault, although as historian André Debord suggests, the historical and archaeological record of the military operation of motte-and-bailey castles remains relatively limited. An alternative approach focuses on the links between this form of castle and what can be termed a feudal mode of society. The spread of motte-and-bailey castles was usually closely tied to

6970-402: Was limited, and many needed to be built on fresh ground. Concentric castles , relying on several lines of baileys and defensive walls, made increasingly little use of keeps or mottes at all. Across Europe, motte-and-bailey construction came to an end. At the end of the 12th century, the Welsh rulers began to build castles in stone, primarily in the principality of North Wales and usually along

7055-479: Was reduced by the operation of the Land Acts in the late 19th and early 20th century but the castle remained surrounded by its original demesne, and other estate lands remain around the district, some adjacent to the demesne and some remote. Much of the work of the writer Lord Dunsany was done at the Castle, notably in a room in one of the building's towers. The author commissioned a two-storey extension to one side of

7140-484: Was the establishment by the new king of royal castles in key strategic locations, including many towns. These urban castles could make use of the existing town's walls and fortification, but typically required the demolition of local houses to make space for them. This could cause extensive damage: records suggest that in Lincoln 166 houses were destroyed in the construction of Lincoln Castle , and that 113 were destroyed for

7225-550: Was used to describe the bailey complex within these castles. One contemporary account of these structures comes from Jean de Colmieu around 1130, describing the Calais region in northern France. De Colmieu described how the nobles would build "a mound of earth as high as they can and dig a ditch about it as wide and deep as possible. The space on top of the mound is enclosed by a palisade of very strong hewn logs, strengthened at intervals by as many towers as their means can provide. Inside

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