Mountains or Molehills? Different Uses for Mottes in the Lordships of Eastern Ireland

This article presents the results of recent studies on the local distributions and features of mottes in the English lordships of eastern Ireland in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Traditionally, they were seen purely in terms of military conquest by incoming English lords. However, thanks to thirty years of fieldwork, we now have a good knowledge of the distribution of surviving mottes and can consider their position in relation to borders and defence, agricultural priorities and continuity with settlement sites before and after the period of their use. We can see how the use of mottes was more varied than the traditional view and that they can shed more light on general processes of settlement over a longer period than the initial occupation of the land by the new lords. Mottes are less a type of site than an optional part of an earth and timber castle, at times important militarily, but more often a marker of the presence of a centre of lordship in the landscape.