15/09/2026
Very interesting!
For this weekās Ulster Monuments Monday, we will be looking at a motte and bailey in County Antrim!
A motte and bailey typically consists of a manmade earthen mound (motte) topped with a wood or stone structure (known as the keep) surrounded by a fortified enclosure area (bailey).
Located in Ballymena, Harryville Motte and Bailey (ANT037:022) was built in the late 12th or early 13th centuries. As it lies outside of the earldom of Ulster, it is possible that instead of the Anglo-Normans, this site may have been built by the local OāFlynnās. It sits on a ridge overlooking the River Braid, and consists of a steep-sided, truncated conical mound with a flat rectangular raised platform, encircled by a ditch and large outer bank. This motte and bailey was placed along a main travel route that ran from Dunseverick to Cork.
In 2008, the Harryville Motte and Bailey became the focus of a conservation effort due to the amount of erosion from recreational activities that had been occurring on the site. Spoil had previously been removed from the top of the motte and used to construct causeways across the ditch at the motteās base to provide access to bikes. These causeways were removed and the soil placed inside a retaining fence to help produce the shape of the motte. This work was monitored, and only modern debris (glass bottles, metal, burnt planks) was recovered.
To learn more about this site, read the article āUlster Mottes: A Checklistā T.E. McNeill in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology Third Series Volume 38 (1975) pages 49-56 at https://www.jstor.org/stable/20567747.
You can also read the monitoring report at https://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/communityarchaeology/PDFFileStore/Filetoupload181402en.pdf.
You can read all UJAs up until 2022 *for free* at https://www.jstor.org/journal/ulstjarch.
Have a marvellous Monday!
Image Credit: https://www.communities-ni.gov.uk/heritage-sites/harryville-motte-and-bailey
