Greenmount Motte is a motte and National Monument in County Louth, Ireland.

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Greenmount Motte

Móta Dhruim Chatha
Shown within Ireland
Location	Greenmount, Castlebellingham, County Louth, Ireland
Region	Dee Valley
Coordinates	53.877999°N 6.385855°W / 53.877999; -6.385855
Type	motte
Area	0.7 ha (1.7 acres)
Height	12 metres (39 ft)
History
Material	earth
Founded	12th/13th century
Periods	Norman Ireland
Cultures	Cambro-Norman, Old English
Associated with	Normans
Site notes
Excavation dates	1830 and 1870
Archaeologists	Rev. Joseph Dullaghan, John Henry Lefroy
Public access	yes
Designation	Designations National monument of Ireland Official name Greenmount motte Reference no. 144

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Greenmount Motte is located 2.9 km (1.8 mi) west of Annagassan, overlooking the Dee Valley.

Motte-and-bailey castles were a primitive type of castle built after the Norman invasion, a mound of earth topped by a wooden palisade and tower.^[1]

The motte at Greenmount was formerly known as Droim Chatha ("Battle Ridge", Anglicised Dromcath or Drumcath). A Nicholas of Drumcath (Nicholaus de Dromcath) is mentioned in a documents of 1310 and 1328.^[2]

The foundations of an elongated chamber (1.5 × 1 m in size, 5.5 m below the summit) are visible in the bailey.^[3]

A scabbard-mount with runic inscriptions (DOMNAL SELSHOFOTH A SOERTH THETA, "Domnal Seal's-head owned this sword") was found in excavation, but it believed to be long pre-Norman, indicating that the motte was constructed on the site of an earlier tumulus.^[4][5] Also found were animal bones, charcoal, burnt earth, a bronze axe and a bone harp peg with friction marks.^[6]

Greenmount was a camp ground for Catholic Irish forces in the Irish Rebellion of 1641. It was excavated in 1830, causing a cave-in, and again in 1870.^{[citation needed]}