Looking back on Naas Moat history

NAAS, 4 January 2000: The very core of Naas is a mound of earth probably unknown to the many thousands of Naas people who have only arrived in the town in the last generation. But the ‘Dún’ or ‘Mote’ of Naas (situated on Abbey Road beside the Moat Club) is the storehouse of the complete history of our town since the time of the High Kings ... and possibly before.

As preparations are made to hand ownership of the Mote to the town of Naas from the Sisters of Mercy, Paddy Behan of Naas Local History Group looks back at this unsung treasure in our community:


Naas "mote" why is it so called.? If we trace back the Irish word "mote", we find it to be a loan-word from the Norman, in whose tongue "motte" or "butte", meant earth or dust on which the Normans raised their "bretasches" or wooden castles.

'As we pass the Mote every day of our lives, we look at it, and pass by few even caring to ask how it came to be. We might ask in vain for more information, for among the many neglected branches of Irish Archaeology none is more neglected than the study of the motes. We might ask whether it was carved from an "esker," or was it heaped up by the labour of countless slaves. Did it stand in the dew of the early dawn and dusk of time? Was it made for a prehistoric hero, for Turgesius and his Norsemen, or by the Normans, as many believe? Giraldus Cambrensis, the Norman chronicler, who was not only the contemporary, but the friend, or more the relative of the first Normans who came to Ireland, disagrees. He twice visited Ireland in 1183 and 1186, and records seeing dozens of new castles in the course of construction - yet he describes the motes with great care, in order to attribute them to the Danish King Turgesius, 300 years before his time.

Let us try, by groping into the past, to find an answer to the questions of the people of the 21st century who walk, drive and fly over the Mote or Dun of Naas.

The Dun or Fort of Naas consisted of two motes - the North Mote and the South Mote which was situated where the Fairgreen is now. Apart from it being now discernible as a low hillock, it shows no indisputable trace of fortifications, apart from the stone wall remains of an eighteen century military barracks which existed prior to the building of the Naas Infantry Barracks in 1810.

However, we are most fortunate to have the North Mote still in such a fine state of preservation the land on which it stands was originally in the ownership of the Sisters of Mercy but will now be transferred into the ownership of the Naas UDC for the future benefit of the people of Naas as a result of the 1999 Naas Town Development Plan. The house on the summit of the mote is still private property.

The Dun or Mote of Naas is one of the oldest man made structures in the town, the site is almost certainly over two thousand years old. The name "mote" or "moate' is often used for low earthen forts and even for sepulchral mounds. It is used exclusively for the conical mound with a flat or rounded summit similar to Naas which is 30 feet high, and has a diameter of almost 300 feet at the base.

The present mote, which dates from the Norse or Norman era, was erected on the highest point of the gravel ridge on the site of the much earlier Mote or Dun of the Kings of Leinster, which according to Bardic history was founded by Lewy of the Long Hand, about two thousand years ago.

Naas was the capital of the district anciently called Airthear Life, and was on the border between UI Faolain - the O'Byrne Kingdom, and the Ui Muiri - the O'Toole Kingdom.

The Dun of Naas - which was considered almost impregnable - is mentioned in connection with the legendary origin of the Boroma Laighain or Leinster Tribute in the reign of Tuathaill Teachtmhar in the second century. Tuathaill had two beautiful daughters, Fithir and Darina. The King of Leinster at that time, Eochy Aincheann, wooed and married Darina and carried her off to his palace at Naas. Eochy was also determined to marry her sister Fithir, as his second wife, so he shut up Darina in a room in his palace, and sent out word that she was dead. He then went to Tara in a great appearance of grief and informed Tuathaill, the High King, that his daughter was dead, and asked for her sister Fithir in marriage. Tuathaill consented and Eochy returned home to Naas with his new wife.

Soon afterwards, however, Darina, escaped from her prison, and unexpectedly met her husband and her sister. Her sister fell dead before her face, and the young Queen Darina soon died of a broken heart. O'Flaherty's Ogygia informs us that in 134 AD the High King Tuathaill at the head of a powerful force avenged the insult to his daughters by conquering and beheading Eochy and destroying Naas, massacring its inhabitants. He levied the Boroma Laighain or Leinster Tribute of 6,000 ounces of Silver, 6,000 richly woven mantles, 6,000 cows, hogs, and sheep, every two years. This continued for 500 years until it was abolished in 680 AD by King Finachtach. It was revived 300 years later by Brian Boro King of Munster, hence his name Boroime.

The Dun of Naas destroyed by King Tuathaill Teachtmhar in 134 AD was rebuilt by Luighdech Eithlenn, King of Leinster in 140 AD. However it was burned by Cormac Mac Airt, High King of Ireland in 277 AD to avenge the massacre by Dunlang, King of Leinster, of thirty royal maidens, and a large number of their attendants. But according to the Dindsenchas, it was rebuilt again by the legendary Princess Tailtinn.

During his years of ministry in Ireland 432 AD - 469 AD St Patrick paid several visits to Naas. In 448 he baptised Dubhlang, King of Leinster, his two sons, Oillill and Illann, and daughters Moaghain and Fidelma at his well in Oldtown. He also baptised at Sunday's Well during one of his many visits to the town. "Tripartite Life" states that St Patrick set up his pupal and camped on the green of the Dun of Naas in 465 "to the east of the road, to the north of the Dun."

The so-called "Will of Cathaeir mor" a fiction, but a very early one, mentions "the impregnable Nas he shall strengthen it." A poem from around the same date in the 'Book of Rights’ says, "forward to his house went the king of Laighin, with the heroes till he reached the fort of Nas.” One of those archaic "geasa" in the same book lays a taboo on the same king, "not to come to Nas with full retinue."

The ‘Life of St Fechin’ of Fore also contains an illusion to the Fort of Nas in 664, when the saint obtained the release of several persons, kept prisoner there. "The bonds of the captives were broken in the dun, and Fechin came out with the hostages on the lawn (urla) of the Dun of Naas".

In 705 the "Four Masters" tell us that Conall Cinn Maghair, son of Fergus of Fanat, after his return from an expedition on which he led an army into Leinster and compelled the Lagenians to submit to him, having devastated Naas, and carried away hostages, and tribute. He composed an "adieu" a poetic farewell to the Liffey, in which he praises the unbroken level grass-producing surface of its plain, as far as the Dun of Naas . The "Annals of Ulster" mention its ruin quoting the ancient poem by Conall, which implies that the royal residence was a large single-roofed house on the Dun. " Thou wert safe, except thy roof, O Dun of Naas. The plain of Liffey ... today it is a scorched place."

In the year 861 Muiregan, Son of Diarmead, Lord of Naas and Airtheir Life was slain by the Norsemen. While in 904 Cearball, the last king to be recognised as King of Leinster, was tragically killed at Kildare when he fell from his horse, and was accidentally killed by his own sword. Others say he was killed in battle by the Norse. He was a very brave man, and by all accounts, avenged the death of his father Muiregan, by defeating the Norsemen at the battle of Dublin in 880. He also played a prominent part in the defeat of the powerful Cormac Mac Cuileannain, King and Archbishop of Cashel, at the battle of Bealac Mughna in 903. He was buried at Cill Corban as were eight previous Kings of Leinster before him. With his death, we come to the end of a glorious era in the history of Naas. (Paintings of many events mentioned are to be found in the Council Chamber in Naas Town Hall).

We know very little of what happened in Naas over the next 150 years. Were the Danes in occupation? Did they, as Giraldus wrote, demolish the ancient Dun of Naas and build the present Mote on its site or did the Normans rebuild it when they came in 1170?

We know very little of its history over the next 600 years, until there is a reference to the house on the summit being used as a guard room for the old jail in 1780. A further reference to it being used as a "heliograph" signal station by the British Army when they came to the Curragh in 1815, before the invention of the telephone. Signals were sent by means of mirror reflections from the Curragh to Naas Mote, and then onwards to Kill, Rathcoole and to Dublin.

I wonder what signals the ancient residents of the most powerful spot in Leinster for over a thousand years used ... pigeons or doves or maybe person to person. It is probable that we will never know, but what we do know is that the Mote is visible and real evidence, of the illustrious, but turbulent history of our Town.

Paddy Behan, Naas Local History Group. 1999.