This earthen mound, rising four metres high with a flat top measuring five metres by three metres, has been a notable landmark since at least 1839, when it first appeared on Ordnance Survey maps. The structure sits strategically about 70 metres from a small stream and roughly 470 metres from where that waterway meets the Aughanall River, positioning it perfectly to oversee the surrounding countryside.

The mote likely served as the caput, or principal seat, of the Ballyvaldon fief controlled by the Roche family, Norman settlers who held this land along with Doonooney in Bantry through half a knight’s fee; a feudal arrangement that required military service to their overlord. The mound’s base spreads 23 metres east to west, and though now covered in scrub, it would once have supported timber palisades or buildings at its summit. A defensive fosse, now silted and only 30 centimetres deep but still eight metres wide, encircles the base, marking the original defensive perimeter.

Archaeological records from the 1996 inventory note the site’s continued presence through the centuries, with its appearance on both the 1839 and 1924 Ordnance Survey six-inch maps confirming its enduring significance in the local landscape. While time has softened its military edges and nature has reclaimed much of its surface, Ballingowan Mote remains a tangible link to the complex web of Norman and Gaelic power that shaped medieval Wexford.