The Early Norman Castles of the British Isles.Armitage, Ella Sophia
History
The Early Norman Castles of the British Isles.
Armitage, Ella Sophia
Architecture, Norman; Castles -- Great Britain -- History -- To 1500; Normans -- Great Britain
In the year 1693, the antiquary Edward Llwyd was sitting on the motte
of Tomen y Rhoddwy engaged in making a very bad plan of the castle
[published in _Arch. Camb._, N.S., ii., 57]. His guide told him that he
had heard his grandfather say that two earls used to live there. Llwyd
called the guide an ignorant fellow. Modern traditions are generally
the work of some antiquary who has succeeded in planting his theories
locally; but here we have a tradition of much earlier date than the
time when antiquaries began to sow tares, and such traditions have
usually a shred of truth in them. Is it possible that this castle of
Tomen y Rhoddwy and the neighbouring one of Llanarmon were built by
the earls of Chester and Shrewsbury, who certainly went on expeditions
together against Wales, and appear to have divided their conquests?
It is to be noted that the township is called _Bodigre yr Yarll_, the
township of the earls.
APPENDIX L
THE CASTLE OF TULLOW OR "COLLACHT," p. 335
This information is kindly supplied by Mr Goddard H. Orpen, who writes
to me: "I visited Tullow lately, and asked myself where would a Norman
erect a mote, and I had no difficulty in answering: on the high ground
near where the Protestant church stands. When I got up there the first
thing that I noticed was that the church stood on a platform of earth
10 to 14 feet higher than the road, and that this platform was held in
position by a strong retaining wall, well battered towards the bottom
on one side. I then found on enquiry that the hill on which it stood
and the place to the N.W. of it was called the 'Castle Hill.' On going
round to the N.W. of the church I found a horseshoe-shaped space,
scarped all round to a height of 6 to 10 feet, and rising to about 16
feet above the adjoining fields. There is no doubt that this was the
site of the castle, and that it was artificially raised. To my mind
there was further little doubt that it represented an earlier mote. In
a field adjoining on the W. I could detect a platform of about 50 to
70 paces, with traces of a fosse round the three outer sides.... This
was certainly the Castellum de Tulach mentioned in the deeds concerning
Raymond le Gros' grant to the Abbey of St Thomas.--_Dublin Reg. St
Thomas_, pp. 111, 113."
APPENDIX M
THE CASTLE OF SLANE
Mr Westropp says that the "great earthworks and fosses" on the Hill of
Slane are mentioned in the "Life of St Patrick" (_Journ. R. S. A. I._,
1904, p. 313). What the _Life_ really says is: "They came to Ferta Fer
Fiecc," which is translated "the graves of Fiacc's men"; and the notes
of Muirchu Maccu-Machtheni add, "which, as fables say, were dug by the
slaves of Feccol Ferchertni, one of the nine Wizards" (_Tripartite
Life_, p. 278). It does not mention any fort, or even a hill, and
though Ferta Fer Fiecc is identified with Slane, there is nothing to
show what part of Slane it was.
APPENDIX N
THE WORD "DONJON"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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