Law Mount, High Castleton

NS44SW 1 4112 4477.

(NS 4112 4477) Law Mount (NAT) Motte & Bailey (NR)

OS 6" map (1968)

Law Mount is a motte and bailey.

Information from K A Steer, RCAHMS, letter, 16 April 1954.

Law Mount is a circular, grass-covered mound of earth and stones situated in a commanding position on the summit of a low ridge. It has a maximum height of 3.5m, its nearly flat top is 12.6m in diameter, and the over all diameter is approximately 18.6m. On its E side are slight, unsurveyable traces of a ditch.

A terrace, 70.0m W of the mound, runs across the end slope of the ridge and is possibly a silted-up ditch, which may have enclosed part of the W side of a bailey.

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (JFC) 3 August 1956 and (JLD) 14 February 1962

On surviving ground evidence, the acceptance of this site as a motte and bailey is suspect. The existence of a bailey is entirely suggested by the shape and level surface area of the natural ridge to the W of the mound, Law Mount. Towards, and across, its western limit the ridge appears to have been slightly cut-back to form a defence, but the contours show this may be entirely fortuitous and there is certainly no indication of a ditch around this side.

The mound is generally as described, and seems to be an entirely artificial, earthen construction. The ditch around its E side is perhaps conjectural; the slight depression may be the result of scraping for the mound material. To the E of the mound the ridge gradually fades and no limit to the supposed bailey can be determined.

Discounting the bailey aspect, this mound has similarities with Knockrivoch Mount (NS24NE 13) and Hutt Knowe (NS34SE 2), both of which may be tumuli.

Revised at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (JRL) 7 August 1982