Look at the district map on the board. Find our school in the middle, then find the castle nearest the school.

What ground, water or roads can you already see around it?

Our question for this lesson is: what does its position tell us about who watched this ground, and who lived under that watch?

In medieval Ireland, roughly from 1150 to 1500, the people who held land built strong stone places to keep hold of it. A castle was a large strong stone home built to keep hold of land. A tower house was a tall stone house with thick walls and few windows. A motte was a steep earth mound with a wooden or stone fort on top.

Castle, tower house and motte are all kinds of stronghold: a place built to hold and defend land.

These buildings were not only homes. They were built to defend land, people and goods. The position of each one mattered as much as the stone. Builders chose high ground, a bend in a river, a road or a crossing so that anyone coming near could be seen from the walls.

Stone lasts. That is why some of these buildings still stand when ordinary wooden houses are long gone. When we visit one, we read what is left: the materials, the shape, the repairs, and what the site still overlooks.

We are going to the castle nearest the school with our clipboards and our castle sheet.

1. Stay with the adults and stand only where you are told it is safe. Do not climb on walls or loose stone.
2. Sketch the building you visit. Mark anything that looks strong or hard to attack.
3. Tick every feature you can really see on the building or the ground around it.
4. In the table, write what you notice and what it might mean.
5. Write what materials you notice and what the site overlooks, such as roads, water, hills or open ground.
6. Bring your sheet back. We will use it on the map.

If we cannot go out, we will stay in class and work from the site record on the board, and fill in the same castle sheet from what the record says.

Look back at the castle sheet you filled in at the visit. What did the building overlook?

On the district map we will mark what the castle nearest the school could watch.

1. Choose a colour in the key for a route, a river or water, or high ground.
2. When it is your turn at the board, tap Line, then tap along that feature.
3. Use Pin if you need to mark one clear high point.

When several marks are down, answer together: who needed to watch this ground, and who might have been watched from these walls?

We will treat the castle nearest the school as one source, using the site record and what we wrote on our sheets.

From your seats, answer the three questions in order on the board. Say what the building and its position can show, then name three things they cannot tell us.