ringwork

Nuigirl

Hi,

I was hoping someone could help me differenciate between a ringwork and an anglo-norman castle? Or are they the same thing?

Saabdub

Ringworks are a form of earth and timber castle. They were simple earthwork fortifications consisting of a circular to oval or sometimes sub-rectangular area enclosed by banks and ditches and wooden palisades. They were relatively easy to construct and are thought to have been constructed in the early conquest period. In some cases they were be replaced by later stone castles as at Trim and Carlow. The other form of earth and timber castle was the motte and bailey, which consisted of a circular to oval area enclosed by a bank, ditch and palisade with a wooden tower constructed on top of a earthen cone-shaped mound. They were also sometimes replaced with stone castles.

Reoil

A ringwork is more of a ditch alone - i.e. an enclosure with no motte.
I would have placed them as being established well before the anglo-norman too.

Saabdub

A number of Ringworks have evidence for banks, ditches and palisades. At Carlow, O'Conor identified postholes at the inner edge of the ditch indicating a palisade. At King John's castle there was an internal earthen bank revetted by stone in places.

Excavated Ringworks have only produced Anglo-Norman twelfth century and later artefacts. At Pollardstown Fanning identified a ditch and double bank and suggested on the basis of the finds that the site was occupied in the twelfth to fourteenth centuries. At Ballysimon Collins noted only thirteenth to fourteenth century finds.

Ringworks tend to occur on the sites of historically documented Anglo-Norman caputs as at Trim, Rathangan, Carlow, etc. At Ferrycarrig the Ringwork appears to correspond with the the timber castle that Robert FitzStepen constructed in 1169-70 and at Trim the Ringwork corresponds with the fortification constructed by Hugh de Lacy in 1172.

See Sweetman 1999 Medieval Castles of Ireland; Barry 1987 the Archaeology of Medieval Ireland and O'Conor 1998 The Archaeology of Medieval Rural Settlement in Ireland.

boneless

Can I also add O'Neill, The Castles of Ireland 2000 (?) to the list? Good disscussion on the morphology of castles therein.

Saabdub

McNeill, T.E. 1997. Castles in Ireland. Good one.

boneless

Saabdub wrote: »

McNeill, T.E. 1997. Castles in Ireland. Good one.

Twas the one I meant :P! Sorry... got confused!! I am tired and sick of archaeology at present...

Saabdub

I get that way regularly. Alcohol helps