[1034] Benedict of Peterborough, i., 67. See Mr Neilson’s papers in the Dumfries Standard, June 28, 1899. Mr Neilson remarks: “It may well be that the original castle of Dumfries was one of Malcolm IV.’s forts, and that the mote of Troqueer, at the other side of a ford of the river, was the first little strength of the series by which the Norman grip of the province was sought to be maintained.”
[1035] “Mottes, Forts, and Doons of Kirkcudbright,” Soc. Ant. Scot., xxv., 1890.
[1036] The Annals of the Four Masters mention the building of three castles (caisteol) in Connaught in 1125, and the Annals of Ulster say that Tirlagh O’Connor built a castle (caislen) at Athlone in 1129. What the nature of these castles was it is now impossible to say, but there are no mottes at the three places mentioned in Connaught (Dunlo, Galway, and Coloony). The caislen at Athlone was not recognised by the Normans as a castle of their sort, as John built his castle on a new site, on land obtained from the church. Sweetman’s Cal., p. 80.
[1037] The meagre entries in the various Irish Annals may often come from contemporary sources, but as none of their MSS. are older than the 14th century, they do not stand on the same level as the two authorities above mentioned.
[1038] “Hibernicus enim populus castella non curat; silvis namque pro castris, paludibus utitur pro fossatis.” Top. Hib., 182, R. S., vol. v. In the same passage he speaks of the “fossa infinita, alta nimis, rotunda quoque, et pleraque triplicia; castella etiam murata, et adhuc integra, vacua tarnen et deserta,” which he ascribes to the Northmen. This passage has been gravely adduced as an argument in favour of the prehistoric existence of mottes! as though a round ditch necessarily implied a round hill within it! Giraldus was probably alluding to the round embankments or raths, of which such immense numbers are still to be found in Ireland. By the “walled castles” he probably meant the stone enclosures or cashels which are also so numerous in Ireland. In the time of Giraldus the word castellum, though it had become the proper word for a private castle, had not quite lost its original sense of a fortified enclosure of any kind, as we know from the phrases “the castle and tower” or “the castle and motte” not infrequent in documents of the 12th century (see Round’s Geoffrey de Mandeville, Appendix O, [p. 328]). We may add that Giraldus’ attribution of these prehistoric remains to Thorgils, the Norwegian, only shows that their origin was unknown in his day.
[1039] See Expug. Hib., 383, 397, 398.
[1040] I am informed that the “Crith Gablach,” which gives a minute description of one of these halls, is a very late document, and by no means to be trusted.
[1041] Vide the Irish Annals, passim.
[1042] There is another story, preserved in Hanmer’s Chronicle, that the Irish chief Mac Mahon levelled two castles given to him by John de Courcy, saying he had promised to hold not stones but land.
[1043] Joyce’s Irish Names of Places, p. 290.