From The Neolithic To The Sea: A Journey From The Past To The Present

Druchtag Motte

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Category
County
Coordinates
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Condition
Age
Admission
Castle
Dumfries and Galloway
54°47'15.4"N 4°34'06.1"W
NX 3495046659
-
11th Century
Free
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Druchtag Motte is an abandoned castle located north of Mochrum, Dumfries and Galloway.

All that is left of the motte is just a tall, steep mound and ditch, but it was once the site of a formidable timber stronghold. These mottes were Norman style earthwork castles, built both for defence and as a status symbol. The first mottes in Scotland were built in the early 1100s, during the reign of David I 1124–53. This type of residence and defence were largely replaced by stone castles from the 1200s.

The steep hill measures twenty meters in diameter with is a ditch around it. On the summit of the mound a wooden building would have been built along with a palisade around at the edge of the mound. No traces of the bailey have been found and site has never been excavated.

It is not known who built this motte and resided here. It is thought to have been abandoned quite soon after it was built. Most of the earthwork motte castles were built in Galloway in the 1100s and 1200s, by both the Lords of Galloway and the Scottish Crown.

Most motte and bailey castles were abandoned by or during the Wars of Independence, from about 1296 and never reoccupied.