Castle - motte and bailey, Griffinstown, Co. Westmeath
The castle at Griffinstown in County Westmeath sits on low-lying wet pasture, offering commanding views across the countryside in nearly every direction, though the higher ground to the south overlooks the site.
Castle - motte and bailey, Griffinstown, Co. Westmeath
This motte and bailey fortification appears on the 1913 Ordnance Survey map as a distinctive triangular earthwork, and today remains clearly visible from aerial photography as a tree-lined bivallate structure surrounded by forestry.
The monument consists of a raised triangular platform measuring approximately 25.6 metres from north-northeast to south-southwest and 21.4 metres east to west. This elevated motte is defined by high, steep scarps and encircled by a wide fosse, or defensive ditch, which has filled in considerably over the centuries. A small rectangular bailey adjoins the main structure to the northeast, protected by its own steep banks and an outer fosse along its northeastern edge. Beyond this, an irregular area extending from the bailey appears to be a natural raised feature, likely shaped by historical flooding before modern drainage work; this elevation probably served as an outer bailey, taking advantage of the natural defensive qualities of the landscape.
Access to the castle was via a narrow causeway approaching from the south-southeast, which crosses the fosse and measures just 4.3 metres wide overall, narrowing to less than a metre at its top. The fosse remains best preserved on either side of this probable entrance point. Various disturbances to the earthwork are evident, including a depression where the causeway meets the platform edge and a steep-sided hole in the east-northeast section with an adjacent mound of excavated earth to its west. While much of the outer bailey area has now been planted with trees, the essential Norman defensive structure remains remarkably legible in the landscape.