Before quitting the subject of the _Raths_, it may be useful to notice Ledwich's observations on that subject. Quoting Giraldus, The Irish, says he, had no castles, their woods served them for camps, and their marshes for ditches. It was Turgesius and his Ostmen who formed that infinite number of earthen forts and castles made of lime and stone. It is then to those northern invaders that Giraldus ascribes the high round earthen forts with deep ditches and often triple entrenchments. This is certainly in opposition to Mr. Harris, who argues for their Celtic origin, reasoning principally on the name of _rath_ being of Celtic derivation. It has also been supposed that they may have been introduced by the Belgic colonists, as the name has some appearance of Teutonic origin. These raths are generally upon elevated spots, and of various dimensions, from 10 or 15 yards diameter, to an extent of 18 or 20 acres. Some of them have subterraneous chambers, with sally-ports; some are round, others square; the former supposed by Spencer to be Danish, the latter Saxon. They are sometimes called _Motes_, a Gothic word signifying the place of meeting; and indeed it has been supposed that many of them were intended rather for civil legislation, or judicial purposes, than as works of military defence. These Raths, together with the _Duns_, or inclosures upon insulated rocks, and the _Daingeans_, or inclosures formed by deep ditches with ramparts and pallisadoes, are supposed by Ledwich to have been the only forts amongst the Irish antecedent to the invasion by the Norman barons in the reign of Henry II. In many parts of the island, the Irish chiefs had an inveterate dislike to fixed fortifications--one cogent reason why scarcely any castles exist except of English erection; a fact well illustrated by an anecdote of the famous De Courcy, who constructed two castles in _Mac Mahon's_ country, a step which awed the latter into complaisance; and he having sworn fidelity, De Courcy bestowed on him the two castles with their appendant lands. But within a month Mac Mahon demolished both; and, on being asked his reason for doing so, replied that "he did not promise to hold stones but land; and that it was contrary to his nature to live within cold walls whilst the woods were so nigh."