THE NORMANS

At the beginning of the tenth century, the French King, Charles the Simple, had given some land in the North of France to a Viking chief named Rollo. He hoped that by giving the Vikings their own land in France they would stop attacking France. The land became known as Northmannia, the land of the North men. It was later shortened to Normandy. � The Vikings intermarried with the French and by the year 1000, they were no longer Viking pagans, but French speaking Christians.

The coming of the Anglo-Normans to Ireland in the 1170s has become know as the Norman Invasion. The Normans had originally come to England and Wales from Normandy in France. A new monastic order, the Cistercians from France, had been invited to Ireland in 1142 even before the Normans arrived, and founded the Cistercian Mellifont Abbey in County Louth.

MOTTE AND BAILEYS

A motte and bailey castle is made up of two parts: the motte and the bailey. The motte is a raised mound or earthwork with a stone or wooden keep on top. The bailey is an courtyard enclosed and protected by a ditch and a palisade. Mottes could be either man-mad or natural. Sometimes an existing mound would be added to. Mottes were flat on top and they varied quite a bit in terms of height and diameter. In some places, the motte could be 30 meters high, but this wasn’t normal. Most mottes were between 5 and 10 meters in height

A motte-and-bailey castle was made up of two structures, a motte, a type of mound - often artificial - topped with a wooden or stone structure known as a keep; and at least one bailey, a fortified enclosure built next to the motte. The term "motte and bailey" is a relatively modern one, and is not medieval in origin.

The Bailey was a defended yard, surrounded by the ditch, which contained barracks, stables, livestock and other buildings for storing food, weapons and equipment. The Motte varied in size from 50 to 120 feet in height and 50 to 300 feet in diameter.Motte and Bailey Castles were built on the highest ground in the area Motte and Bailey Castles often adjoined Rivers Motte and Bailey Castles often overlooked Towns and harbours Motte and Bailey Castles made use of existing sites of Roman or Saxon forts and Burhs

STONE CASLTE

A few English timber Motte and Bailey style Norman castles had been constructed by Normans who had been invited to England by King Edward the Confessor, prior to the Norman invasion in However, the vast number of Norman castles were built following the Battle of Hastings and the Norman conquest.

William the Conqueror employed a strategy of building a network of Norman Stone Castles. Permanent, dominating castles to augment the wooden Motte and Bailey castles. The wooden castles with the problem of their destruction by fire made wood unsuitable material for permanent fortification. Stone was the next chosen medieval castle material of the Norman era (although timber was still used for doors, roofs, frames and scaffolds). King Edward I and his chief architect and builder Master James of St George followed the Norman strategy of building even more stone castles and introduced the famous and massive Concentric Castles.

Norman Castles were built on the highest ground in the area Norman Castles often adjoined Rivers Norman Castles often overlooked Towns and harbours Norman Castles made use of existing sites of Roman or Saxon forts and Burhs