Skyum-Nielsen, Niels and Niels Lund (eds) (1981) Danish Medieval History: New Currents. Københavns, Denmark: Museum Tusculanum Press. ISBN 978-87-88073-30-0. Motte-and-bailey castles were introduced to Ireland following the Norman invasion of Ireland that began between 1166 and 1171 under first Richard de Clare and then Henry II of England, with the occupation of southern and eastern Ireland by a number of Anglo-Norman barons. [89] The rapid Norman success depended on key economic and military advantages; their cavalry enabled Norman successes in battles, and castles enabled them to control the newly conquered territories. [90] The new lords rapidly built castles to protect their possessions; most of these were motte-and-bailey constructions, many of them strongly defended. [91] Unlike Wales, the indigenous Irish lords do not appear to have constructed their own castles in any significant number during the period. [92] [nb 2] Between 350 and 450 motte-and-bailey castles are believed to remain today, although the identification of these earthwork remains can be contentious. [94] Architecture [ edit ] Structures [ edit ] Plan of Topcliffe Castle in North Yorkshire, an archetypal motte-and-bailey design Castle Pulverbatch in Shropshire in England was built in the 11th or 12th century and abandoned by 1202. This Digital elevation model shows the motte just left of centre, with the bailey to the right (north-east) of it. [2] Lowry, Bernard. Discovering Fortifications: From the Tudors to the Cold War. Risborough, UK: Shire Publications. ISBN 978-0-7478-0651-6. Kidadl provides inspiration to entertain and educate your children. We recognise that not all activities and ideas are appropriate and suitable for all children and families or in all circumstances. Our recommended activities are based on age but these are a guide. We recommend that these ideas are used as inspiration, that ideas are undertaken with appropriate adult supervision, and that each adult uses their own discretion and knowledge of their children to consider the safety and suitability.

One factor was the introduction of stone into castle buildings. The earliest stone castles had emerged in the 10th century, with stone keeps being built on mottes along the Catalonia frontier and several, including Château de Langeais, in Angers. [100] Although wood was a more powerful defensive material than was once thought, stone became increasingly popular for military and symbolic reasons. [101] Some existing motte-and-bailey castles were converted to stone, with the keep and the gatehouse usually the first parts to be upgraded. [102] Shell keeps were built on many mottes, circular stone shells running around the top of the motte, sometimes protected by a further chemise, or low protective wall, around the base. By the 14th century, a number of motte and bailey castles had been converted into powerful stone fortresses. [103] A reconstruction of England's Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight as it was in the 14th century, showing the keep built atop the motte (top left), and the walled-in bailey below One contemporary account of these structures comes from Jean de Colmieu around 1130, describing the Calais region in northern France. De Colmieu described how the nobles would build "a mound of earth as high as they can and dig a ditch about it as wide and deep as possible. The space on top of the mound is enclosed by a palisade of very strong hewn logs, strengthened at intervals by as many towers as their means can provide. Inside the enclosure is a citadel, or keep, which commands the whole circuit of the defences. The entrance to the fortress is by means of a bridge, which, rising from the outer side of the moat and supported on posts as it ascends, reaches to the top of the mound". [7] At Durham Castle, contemporaries described how the motte-and-bailey superstructure arose from the "tumulus of rising earth" with a keep rising "into thin air, strong within and without" with a "stalwart house...glittering with beauty in every part". [8] Motte [ edit ] The motte and bailey defences of Launceston Castle in England Hulme, Richard (2008), "Twelfth Century Great Towers – The Case for the Defence" (PDF), The Castle Studies Group Journal, 21: 209–229 Pringle, Denys. "A castle in the sand: mottes in the Crusader east," in Château Gaillard: études de castellologie médiévale. XVIII, pp. 187–190.

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McNeill, Tom. (2000) Castles in Ireland: Feudal Power in a Gaelic World. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-22853-4. Mottes were made out of earth and flattened on top, and it can be very hard to determine whether a mound is artificial or natural without excavation. [9] Some were also built over older artificial structures, such as Bronze Age barrows. [10] The size of mottes varied considerably, with these mounds being 3 metres to 30 metres in height (10–100 feet), and from 30 to 90 metres (100 to 300ft) in diameter. [11] This minimum height of 3 metres (10 feet) for mottes is usually intended to exclude smaller mounds which often had non-military purposes. [12] In England and Wales, only 7% of mottes were taller than 10 metres (33 feet) high; 24% were between 10 and 5 metres (33 and 16ft), and 69% were less than 5 metres (16 feet) tall. [13] A motte was protected by a ditch around it, which would typically have also been a source of the earth and soil for constructing the mound itself. [14] De Meulemeester, Johnny. (1982) "Mottes Castrales du Comté de Flandres: État de la question d'apr les fouilles récent," Château Gaillard: études de castellologie médiévale. XI, pp. 101–115. (in French) Creighton, Oliver Hamilton. (2005) Castles and Landscapes: Power, Community and Fortification in Medieval England. London: Equinox. ISBN 978-1-904768-67-8. Debord, André. (1982) "A propos de l'utilisation des mottes castrales," in Château Gaillard: études de castellologie médiévale. XI, pp. 91–99. (in French)

Standing at almost five feet tall, the KidKraft Grand Horse Stable Dollhouse will have the “neigh”-bors galloping with envy. This 2-in-1 play pattern features a four-story mansion with expansive rooms, walk-through doors and see-through windows plus a connected two-story barn, complete with resident horse. A spinning weathervane tops the structure that includes a room for a live-in groomer or trainer to stay. Set up the fence in any configuration you choose to extend the play. Two fence jumps are included to practice those leaps. With furniture that mimics real-life pieces, a balcony that juts from the top and an elevator that really moves, equestrian enthusiasts will find plenty to keep them busy in the Grand Horse Stable Dollhouse by KidKraft. Robinson, John Martin. (2010) Windsor Castle: the Official Illustrated History. London: Royal Collection Publications. ISBN 978-1-902163-21-5. In England, motte-and-bailey earthworks were put to various uses over later years; in some cases, mottes were turned into garden features in the 18th century, or reused as military defences during the Second World War. [112] Today, almost no mottes of motte-and-bailey castles remain in regular use in Europe, with one of the few exceptions being that at Windsor Castle, converted for the storage of royal documents. [113] Another example is Durham Castle in northern England, where the round tower is used for student accommodation. The landscape of northern Europe remains scattered with their earthworks, and many form popular tourist attractions. Various methods were used to build mottes. Where a natural hill could be used, scarping could produce a motte without the need to create an artificial mound, but more commonly much of the motte would have to be constructed by hand. [21] Four methods existed for building a mound and a tower: the mound could either be built first, and a tower placed on top of it; the tower could alternatively be built on the original ground surface and then buried within the mound; the tower could potentially be built on the original ground surface and then partially buried within the mound, the buried part forming a cellar beneath; or the tower could be built first, and the mound added later. [28]Bradbury, Jim. (2009) Stephen and Matilda: the Civil War of 1139–53. Stroud, UK: The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7509-3793-1.

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 constructive elements themselves are ancient, but the term motte-and-bailey is a relatively modern one and is not medieval in origin. [3] The word motte is the French version of the Latin mota, and in France, the word motte, generally used for a clump of turf, came to refer to a turf bank, and by the 12th century was used to refer to the castle design itself. [4] The word "bailey" comes from the Norman-French baille, or basse-cour, referring to a low yard. [5] In medieval sources, the Latin term castellum was used to describe the bailey complex within these castles. [6] By the 11th century, castles were built throughout the Holy Roman Empire, which then spanned central Europe. They now typically took the form of an enclosure on a hilltop, or, on lower ground, a tall, free-standing tower (German Bergfried). [57] The largest castles had well-defined inner and outer courts, but no mottes. [58] The motte-and-bailey design began to spread into Alsace and the northern Alps from France during the first half of the 11th century, spreading further into Bohemia and Austria in the subsequent years. [59] This form of castle was closely associated with the colonisation of newly cultivated areas within the Empire, as new lords were granted lands by the emperor and built castles close to the local gród, or town. [60] motte-and-bailey castle building substantially enhanced the prestige of local nobles, and it has been suggested that their early adoption was because they were a cheaper way of imitating the more prestigious Höhenburgen built on high ground, but this is usually regarded as unlikely. [61] In many cases, bergfrieds were converted into motte and bailey designs by burying existing castle towers within the mounds. [61] Reconstructed Bergfried at Lütjenburg, GermanyBrown, R. Allen. (1989) Castles From the Air. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-32932-3. Simpson, Grant G. and Bruce Webster. (2003) "Charter Evidence and the Distribution of Mottes in Scotland," in Liddiard (ed) (2003a). Historic England. "Castle Pulverbatch motte and bailey castle with outer bailey, 100m NNW of Brook Cottage (1012860)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 28 July 2017. In England, William invaded from Normandy in 1066, resulting in three phases of castle building in England, around 80% of which were in the motte-and-bailey pattern. [62] The first of these was the establishment by the new king of royal castles in key strategic locations, including many towns. [63] These urban castles could make use of the existing town's walls and fortification, but typically required the demolition of local houses to make space for them. [64] This could cause extensive damage: records suggest that in Lincoln 166 houses were destroyed in the construction of Lincoln Castle, and that 113 were destroyed for the castle in Norwich and 27 for the castle in Cambridge. [65] The second and third waves of castle building in the late-11th century were led by the major magnates and then the more junior knights on their new estates. [66] Some regional patterns in castle building can be seen – relatively few castles were built in East Anglia compared to the west of England or the Marches, for example; this was probably due to the relatively settled and prosperous nature of the east of England and reflected a shortage of unfree labour for constructing mottes. [67] In Wales, the first wave of the Norman castles was again predominantly made of wood in a mixture of motte-and-bailey and ringwork designs. [68] The Norman invaders spread up the valleys, using this form of castle to occupy their new territories. [69] After the Norman conquest of England and Wales, the building of motte-and-bailey castles in Normandy accelerated as well, resulting in a broad swath of these castles across the Norman territories, around 741 motte-and-bailey castles in England and Wales alone. [70] Further expansion, 12th and 13th centuries [ edit ] A vliedburg motte in the Netherlands