Medieval Timber and Earthwork Fortifications in Western Ireland

Abstract

IT IS BECOMING increasingly apparent that conventional classification schemes for medieval timber and earthwork fortifications in Ireland are compromised by two factors. First they depend upon ethnic categorization, an approach derived from assuming the innovatory ethos of the Anglo-Norman conquest which commenced in 1169. Second, until very recently, the role of the ringwork as a congener to the motte-and-bailey has been ignored. The evidence from western Ireland discussed in this paper points to a pre-Norman development of feudalism and its symbol, the private castle; ultimately, the conceptual and geographical contexts of these innovations are contemporary events elsewhere in the British Isles and northern France. The discussion further points to the probability that shortly after c. 1200, the ringwork—present from or even before 1169—replaced the motte-and-bailey as the customary Anglo-Norman garrisoned fortress in Ireland, thereby providing an explanation for the curious easterly bias in the distribution of the latter.