"MOTES"—The name "mote," or "moate," is often used for low earthen forts, and even for sepulchral mounds. In this, as in my two former Papers dealing with the subject,' I use it exclusively for the conical mound, circular, 25 to 60 feet high, with a flat or rounded summit, 40 to over 100 feet across, and girt with one or more rings and fosses. This I call a "simple mote"; when in addition there is a lower side platform, "annexe," "bailey," or "faitche," I call it a complex A satisfactory nomenclature has yet to be evolved.

mote.

If we trace back the Irish "mota," we find it to be a loan-word from the Norman, in whose tongue "motte," or "butte," meant earth or dust.3 The motes that could get into the eye became, when heaped up, the motes (whatever their origin and date) on which the Normans raised their "bretasches," or wooden castles. The name is not derived from the moats, or fosses, or from the "mot," or counsel, of the place of assembly, but simply meant earth, or earthwork, without any connotation of height, shape, or object; it could even mean the low "mound by which water was embanked."

5

The usage of "mote" for a low fort, as Mr. Hubert T. Knox points out, is no new thing in Ireland. The Anglo-Normans applied it to any sort of earthwork. "Mota was sometimes used for a low earthwork, as at the Castle of Roscommon in 1279. Ath cliath chorrain got the name Baile an mhuta, the town of the mote, after 1300, though no high fort was there. The old translation of the Annals of Ulster "C" renders "the door of the rath" by "the mote doore." Moate, one of the possessions of Ballintubber Abbey, is called "le mothe" in Tudor Inquisitions, but no high mote remains there. Indeed, Mr. Knox (whose intimate

1 This Paper presupposes the sections on motes in "Ancient Forts of Ireland, being a contribution towards our knowledge of their types, affinities, and structural features" (p. 6, and sections 128-148, pp. 129-137). See also "Further Notes" on the same, "especially as to the age of motes in Ireland" (Proc. R.I.A., vol. xxiv. (c.), p. 267).

2O'Donovan adopts the word "faitche"-used in the Senchas Mór and various Annals for the green of a fort-to describe a bailey or annexe of a mote, but I think on no evidence, as the faitche is certainly (and is frequently named as) the appendage of a ring-fort. I, therefore, still use the non-committal term annexe as preferable to "faitche" and " bailey."

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3 Cotgrave's "French Dictionary" gives "motte" as "a clod, lump, round sod, of turf or earth, a little hill, the hill as a fit seat for a fort, the fort itself." In Dutch, "mot means "turf or dust"; in Italian, "mire," and is either a heap or a hollow, as we use "ditch" and "dyke" with opposite meanings. We find in Migne's "Lexicon " (1858) "Mota, eminentia seu tumulus, cui inædificatum castellummotte féodale, éminence naturelle ou artificielle dont le sommet porte un chateau, un tour, un donjon." Similarly "cruaich,” in the description of the taking of Bunfinne Castle, means "tumuli terreni" (Revue Celtique, vol. xviii., p. 80).

4

39 66

Migne also gives for mota agger quo continentur aquae," i.e. the outer ring

of the fosse.

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T. Crofton Croker (Fairy Legends," ed. 1862, p. 15) considers the word moat as unsuitably applied to Knockgraffan. We find the word in Meath applied to true motes, low forts, sepulchral tumuli (like Newgrange, Knowth, and Dowth), and little barrows.

666 "Pipe Rolls of Ireland," An. viii. Ed. I. I owe my notes from this valuable source to the kindness of Mr. M. M'Enery, of the Irish Record Office.

knowledge both of ground and records gives his statements great weight) goes so far as to say that where you find "mote" in a place-name in Mayo or the adjoining counties no high mote is ever found. We may give a few proofs of later usage of the term for a low fort. Stanihurst, in his Chronicle,' mentions in 1577 that "the maior (of Dublin) bestoweth a costlie dinner within a mote, or a rundell" (evidently a rath) at Cullenswood. In the deed of perambulation of the bounds of Limerick City, 31st August, 1609, we find as landmarks "the small hillock, mound, or mote made by the causeway," "the round, or moate," and Walshestown, where there is a moat," all being low raths. In certain maps of the Down Survey, 1655-7, we see little sketches of raths, called moats, while the true mote of Kilfinnane is called an "Irish downe."2 Similarly we find a fort near Lisburn, which gives the place its name, is thus described in a pamphlet of 1691,3" Lisnegarva, Gamesters' Mount, a mount, moated about, and another to the west." In modern townland names few are the coincidences of the name "mote" with the actual high fort. The "mots" of Slane and Trim, of which so much has been asserted, and so little established, were easily made, destroyed, and the latter rebuilt. The mote at Roscrea was apparently completed before a messenger could go thirty miles, and return with permission to build it.

The word occurs as a place-name in thirty-three townlands-eighteen in Leinster, nine in Connaught, five in Munster, and one in Ulster-very different proportions from the occurrence of the forts. This shows that the usage was based on language, not on the remains; and all these facts make it clear how little even the record of the making of a "mote " need necessarily prove the construction of a "mount."

994

IRISH FORT NAMES.-The early Irish had a rich vocabulary of words for forts. We find, for example, in the "Wars of the Gaedhil with the Gaill," cathair, dangan, dun, dingna, liss, longport, port, and rath. This might lead us to suppose that in the eleventh century shades of meaning now irrecoverable were attached to these words; but other documents suggest the contrary. We find in the Dindsenchas that the ring-fort of Dun Ailenn is called a "brugh, cathair, forradh, grianan, mur, and righdun"; the forts of Tara being called "cathair, cladh, dangan, dindgna, dun, liss, mur, and rath." The "Book of Fenagh calls the great stone fort, within which the church was built," "dangan, royal dun, stone cashel, and cathair."

1 Vol. i., p. 254.

2"Down Survey, Limerick" (A), No. 59, description, P. R. O. I. 3 Ulster Journal of Archæology, vol. v., p. 159.

For example (in the Irish Pipe Roll, 27 Ed. I., No. 26), where large stones are quarried to make a wall round Newcastle M'Kynegan, "and a mote," in An. xxv.xxvi., Ed. I., 1297-8.

5(Ed. W. Hennessy), p. 113. See also Ordnance Survey Letters of Cavan and Leitrim, 14 B. 16, p. 185, R.I.A.

6 (Ed. Dr. Whitley Stokes in Revue Celtique, 1894, p. 418.) For example, in the

The Latin writers were evidently equally uncertain in their translations; Dun is rendered "Munitio" by Adamnan; Munitio cet herni being Dun cethirn, or the Giant's Sconce. We find "Munimentum Celtarii" for Dun Celtair in the ancient Life of St. Brigid attributed to Cogitosus. Rath is rendered "murum" by Jocelin of Furness,' "fossa in the Tripartite Life (where Fossa Rigbairt is Rath Righbhaird), and Arx (Arx Libteni for Rath libhthen) in the Life of St. Aidus of Killare. Most of our modern scholars fail to establish individual meanings for the various Irish words for forts.

3

The local names show that no special word was set apart for high motes; the latter were called by various names. We find "Dun" used for the motes of Dun Celtchair, or Downpatrick, the Dun of Naas, Dunsginne, at Lismore, Dunohil, Dundermot, Dunaghy, Dunegore, and the "Down" of Kilfinnane. "Rath" appears at Rathceltchair, Crown Rath, near Newry, the Rath of Magh Adhair, Rahue, Rathmore, and Rathereevagh; "Liss," at Lismore, Lisboy, and Listerlin. Mullach is used for a mote at Mullagasty, near Tipperary.

If there be any special word for a high mote, it may be "tulachán;" this was used for motes in Leinster, along with "knockán" (which is still in use), by Harris in 1745, but it often means a drift hill or escar. The Dindsenchas uses "tulach" for both the residence and burial-mound of King Rarann's daughter, near Reerin; while Gilla Coemain's "chronological poem" (eleventh century) says that Conn" of the hundred battles" died at the tulach of Tuathamar," which elsewhere is called a fort. The Annals of Ulster tell how Maelse chlain "abandoned the tulachán❞ near Kells to the King of Aileach; and we may, perhaps, find another term in the "tulchin," or top of the fort of Tara luachra, as named in the Mesca Ulad."

"Dumae" is sometimes used for forts in the Dindsenchas; the Duma na ngiall, or "mound of the hostages," at Tara, was residential; but others were sepulchral mounds, or often outlooks. The Duma Eire and several others are named in the poem on Acaill by Cinaed

"Metrical Dindsenchas" (ed. E. Gwynn, Todd Lecture Series, R.I.A., vol. viii., p. 7), Temair II.: "The abode was a keep (dun), was a fortress (dindgna), was a pride, a rampart (mur)"; and a few verses lower it is called a cathair, a rath, a 66 lofty and conspicuous spot whereon are dwellings and strong keeps" (dindgna). See also Journal, Series IV., vol ii. (1872-3), pp. 155-175. The " dindgna" is a puzzle in these poems. It is "colour-bright," and "gold gleams upon " it-was it the house

on the mound?

1 Vita S. Patricii," chapter clx.

2" Book of Armagh," f. 15, aa, ed. Dr. Reeves.

3 Rev. Dr. M'Carthy identified Donegore with a Rathmore, where a battle was fought in 682. See Index to "Annals of Ulster."

4 Ware (ed. Harris), vol. ii.. chap. xvii., sect. 2, "the mounts," called "knockan and tulachan.' See also Dr. Joyce, "Irish Names of Places," vol. i., p. 376.

5 Loc. cit., p. 418.

O'Hartigan, who also uses the word for the rings between the fosses of a fort.1

2

The word Drum seems at times to imply a fort, as where Drum leathglaise is used for Dunleathglaise. Drum Derbh, or Derver, has a fine complex mote, and two forts of the King of Cashel are called Drumcaoin in the "Book of Rights." Perhaps even the nine "ridges" (drum) of Nendrum were the ring-mounds still to be seen round its hill.3 For Maeve destroyed the "drom thulcaibh" along with the dangans, duns, and cahers, in the Tain raid.*

PREVIOUS STUDY OF THE MOTES.-The neglect of the mote is characteristic only of later Irish students; at first the opposite is true. Dr. Thomas Molyneux, in "A Discourse concerning the Danish Mounts and Towers in Ireland," in 1725, and, still more, Thomas Wright, in "Louthiana," 1748, devoted much space to the subject. For several generations no work of equal merit appeared on the low forts; and even yet the honest work of these pioneers holds a foremost place among our authorities on the motes; for, apart from theory, they did good field. work. Molyneux, however, never consults the Irish Annals, but only such authorities as Olaus Wormius. He confuses cairns with burialmounds like Newgrange, and motes like Downpatrick with raths like Emania, "the King of Ulster's fort, situated not far from the town of Ardmagh." He recognises the pre-Norman origin of the forts and round towers, but attributes both to Ostmen.

Walter Harris, on the contrary, being conversant with Irish records, did not fall into the mistake of laying down rules without exceptions, and (in 1745) inclines to attribute "a share, and only a share" of the forts to the Danes.5

Wright was unacquainted with the works of native historians: the great fort near Dundalk recalls no memories of Cuchullin and the galaxy of Red Branch heroes; it only suggests Spenser's remarks on Thingmotes. Despite his strange theories (deriving, for example, Balrichan from "the Hebrew rachan," finding a stone circle in Louth that commemorated the generations from Adam to Noah, and following Molyneux in describing the three cells in Newgrange as dedicated to Odin, Thor, and Freya, while stating that a cairn chamber was a cell for Christian priests to say Mass in), his actual field notes were not garbled or distorted to fit theories, as with some of his successors.

Less trustworthy was the school of antiquaries that made the statistical and parochial surveys under the shadow of Vallancey early in the last

1 Loc. cit., pp. 289, 470; Todd Lecture Series, R.I.A., vol. viii., p. 47. For view of Derver mote, see "Ancient Forts, fig. 26. See also name in Ann. F. M. and MacGeoghegan's "Histoire d'Irlande,' tome i., p. 11, chap. ii.,

p. 286.

361

Calendar of Oenghus" (ed. Stokes, Royal Irish Academy), p. cvii. 4 Battle of Rossnaree.

5 Vol. ii. (ed. 1745), cxviii., section 2.

century. They could quote their "prophet's" theories about the cupped fibulæ being used to pour libations to the sun and moon, or talk learn edly about Pharamon, son of Boudh; Aonach, "a word derived from Shamanach," the goddess of fairs; or Mog and Sodorn, the wise deity of the tombs, "worshipped at the Mag Adhairs"; but they could not always describe accurately what lay before them, and so based bad theories on inaccurate sketches. They have in a few cases given descriptions of value, and several of these are of the motes.

As the nineteenth century advanced, the remains and records of life in ancient Ireland got better known, and the interest of students shifted from the motes to the ring-forts. This was hardly wonderful, for Tara, Emania, Ratheroghan, Aileach, Ailenn, and the forts of Brian's predecessors near Killaloe, together with the vast stone forts attributed to the doomed Clan-Huamore, were all ring-forts and not motes. At last the study almost died out, and for half a century even the all-embracing pages of our Journal contain little about the motes.

When, in dealing with the general subject of Irish forts, I had to include motes,' I attempted to state my views on these with all possible brevity and caution. Despite this, no other portion of my book. received so much criticism. So little were Irish field archæology and records known in connexion with the motes, that some critics wrote confidently that I had fallen into error, in considering that some Irish motes were prehistoric and others pre-Norman, through my ignorance of the writings of some recent English antiquaries. So far, however, from my statements being" outside perturbations," they may, I believe, be strongly established by our records, and the objects found in the motes; further, we find the distribution of motes, the contemporary Norman historians, and the earliest Irish records refuting the alleged sole Norman origin of the mounds. The object of my Paper is not merely to refute a theoretical opinion, advanced by those who have been too ready to theorise about Irish motes without any special study. I wish here, as always, rather to methodise our present knowledge, and clear the way for others to do better work in this neglected but interesting subject.

EARLY ORIGIN OF SOME MOTES.-In dealing with the question of the origin of motes, the first thing to be examined is whether the type be prehistoric. This is easily answered in the affirmative, for motes, both simple and complex, remain both in Austria and Prussia, some of which have yielded antiquities attributed to the eighth or even the twelfth century before Christ 3-articles of the " Mycenaean" civilisation. The cases illustrated at Stonegg and Geiselberg, in Bosnia and Czerewics, and

"Ancient Forts of Ireland," sections 128, 134, 138. Trans. R.I.A., vol. xxxi., p. 709. Proc. R.I.A., vol. xxiv. (c), p. 267.

2 Journal, vol. xxxii., p. 429.

3 See Borlase,

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Dolmens of Ireland," vol. iii., citing out that the complex motes may be the "castra ac spatia the "bailey" is called the hagel or hook.

Radimski. Borlase points "of Tacitus. In Germany