Known locally as the Moat, this motte and bailey castle was built by Hugh de Lacy, one of the most powerful Norman lords in Ireland, who kept Ratoath as his personal manor after receiving vast lands from King Henry II. The flat-topped mound stands 11 metres high and spans 52 metres at its base, with remnants of a defensive ditch still visible, particularly on the north and east sides. Just southeast lies a raised rectangular bailey, and though both are now planted with deciduous trees on the grounds of the Catholic church, they once formed the administrative heart of a thriving medieval settlement.

The manor’s history reads like a medieval soap opera of inheritances, forfeitures and strategic marriages. After Hugh de Lacy’s death, the lands passed to his son Hugh, who became the first Earl of Ulster, though the family briefly lost control when the manor was forfeited in 1210, only to be returned to Walter de Lacy five years later. The castle of Ratour, as it was known, changed hands multiple times throughout the thirteenth century; it was owned by David FitzWilliam through his wife Matilda, sold to Queen Eleanor by a Welsh baron, and immediately granted to Richard de Burgh, the Red Earl of Ulster. By 1333, when William de Burgh died holding the manor directly from the King, the motte and bailey appear to have been abandoned, with an inquisition describing the site as surrounded by a square ditch but lacking any buildings.

Despite the castle’s abandonment, medieval Ratoath was clearly prosperous; the burgesses paid over £6 in yearly rent, suggesting more than a hundred households in the settlement. The de Burgh family controlled approximately 360 acres in demesne, plus another 160 acres at Betaghsland, likely the native Irish settlement now known as Baytown. Among the thirty-five free tenants recorded were families named Cruys, Tuyt, Cusack, de Bathe, and FitzLeon, though the Berefords were the most numerous. Today, visitors can climb the motte for views across the Meath countryside, standing where Norman lords once surveyed their domains and administered justice to the burgesses below.