Knockgraffon

When I lived down this way I used to visit the Motte at Knockgraffon regularly. So much so that like a lot of places close to home, I don't have that many photos of it.
I think it is accepted that a small percentage of Mottes built by the Normans may have been earlier monuments that were converted into Motte & Baileys. Why spend all that time building a large mound when there is an existing one there? Also it has the compound effect of saying to the native population that we have taken what is yours. I think it is very possible that Knockgraffon Motte is one of those.

There is evidence is that it may have been an inauguration mound of the Kings of Munster at one stage. See here for more information on that
http://www.theapplefarm.com/knockgraffon.htm

Also from
http://www.libraryireland.com/[...]yAncientIreland/III-XVI-17.php

"Knockgraffon.--Another noted Munster palace was Cnoc-Rafonn, now called Knockgraffon, three miles north of Caher in Tipperary, where the great mound, 60 or 70 feet high, still remains, with the ruins of an English castle beside it. Here resided, in the third century, Fiacha Muillethan [Feeha-Mullehan], king of Munster, who, when the great King Cormac mac Art invaded Munster in an attempt to levy tribute, defeated him at Knocklong and routed his army: an event which forms the subject of the historical tale called "The Siege of Knocklong."

The fort is not as noted for fairies as it was in times of old for royalty: and one of the best known modern fairy stories in connexion with it will be found in Crofton Croker's "Fairy Legends of Ireland" namely, "The Legend of Knockgrafton." This Irish legend has been turned into English verse, but with much interpolation, by Thomas Parnell in his ballad, "A Fairy Tale.""

(Joyce, 1913) seems to back up the ownership of the mound by Fiacha when he quotes a 7th century poem which says
"This great rath on which I stand
Wherein is a little well with a bright silver drinking cup
Sweet was the voice of the wood of blackbirds
Round this rath of Fiacha, son of Moinche"

If the identification of the rath as Knockgraffon is correct, then if mentioned in a 7th century poem there should be no question that it existed prior to the Normans invasion.

The most interesting evidence regarding the Motte having a pre-Norman origin is the following from Journal of the Waterford and South East of Ireland Archaeological Society Volume III 1897  Pg 92 - Earliest Monuments in Cashel and Emly
by Rev R H Long, Rector, Templemore

"What a pity it is that a society is not formed now, e'er it is too late, to make a thorough photographic examination of those that remain, and deposit in our museum whatever articles may be found in them of historic value.
The fairies of our times are growing too merciful to mankind to be trusted any longer with those relics, and when they allow Paddy to get hold of them he does not care anything about them unless they are either gold or silver. However, it is probable that but few of these earth-works are sepulchral; those with a central mound are, I suppose, the only ones that may be.
The remains at New Grange, near Drogheda, are considered to be tombs, and the similar mounds in the diocese of Cashel and Emly may be also. The most notable of these are two in Rathcool parish-one at Ardmayle, and one at Knockgraffon. There is no doubt that these mounds are hollow, and there is but little doubt that some day they will be destroyed. One of them had in recent years a narrow escape from a passing railway. I have been informed on good authority that some fifty years age certain workmen, while tilling the field about this latter, came on a subter-ranean passage in which they found what they described as two old swords and an old bucket, which, of course, they treated as rubbish."

The IFC also recorded the legend that there was treasure to be found in the mound "It is said that there are gold and ornaments in the moat."
 http://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4922229/4862714

So at Knockgraffon there was evidence of a "subter-ranean passage" in which "two old swords and an old bucket" were found. He also mentions that the mound is "hollow". As far as I know the Normans didn't generally build passages into or around their Mottes so there is every possibly that it was a reused monument - perhaps a souterrain or even a passage tomb. Only time and perhaps technology such as geophysics will tell.

Lastly there also many legends that seem to identify it with Fairy music. Now this might seem fairly flimsy but I don't think the native Irish would attachd folklore surrouding the fairies to a Norman site.

The book Secret Sights by Rob Vance has this to say about it "renowned as a place of otherwordly music. It was widely reputed in the 19th Century to be a place where ceolsidhe, the music of enchantment, could be heard.".

Similarly the IFC recorded a reference to fairy music at the mound. "It is said that there are fairies in the Moate and that certain people can see them at a late hour of the night, The fairies come out and beging to sing on the top of the Moate."
http://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4922229/4862715

Looking out from the top of the mound toward the Galtees and Glen of Aherlow.

With a person to give an idea of the scale of the Motte.