Scottish Castles Association

Preserving the Past for the Future

Mottes - Scotland’s earliest type of castle

It's a castle, Jim, but not as know it...

Those of a certain vintage will recognise the quote above, albeit with some editorial licence applied to Spock's original retort! In the film industry the castle is obliged to have stone walls, battlements and lofty towers, but there was another, earlier kind – the motte, with not a stone in sight. And Scotland had many of them dotted across its landscape.

Historic Environment Scotland defines a motte as:

An early form of castle consisting of a flat-topped, steep sided earthen mound, supporting a wooden tower and accompanied by a bailey

**ABOVE:** Carnwath Motte (Lanark) **BELOW:** Motte of Urr (Kirkcudbright), left, and Tarbolton Motte (Ayr), right

Easy to build with unskilled labour, the motte provided an immediate solution for an immediate need. An artificial, earthen mound topped by a tower of braced timber, at whose base lay the bailey, or courtyard. All strongly palisaded and protected by a ditch.

**From left:** The formidable Duntrag Motte (Wigtown), Polnoon Motte and Hawick Motte with the subjects in the photos helping to show scale

In 12th century Scotland, mottes were commonplace but, over a period of one hundred years, they were gone, replaced by stone castles or simply abandoned. But the mounds that marked where these imposing fortifications once stood can still be found across the country.