A moat is a wide, water-filled ditch partly or completely enclosing one or more islands of dry ground which provided the site for one or more buildings (domestic, religious or agricultural), or for horticulture, or for both. Moats may be situated in open countryside or within rural settlements, but specifically excluded from the class of monuments here called moats are the water-filled ditches around castles, mottes, ring-works, and towns. Moats represent a class of field monument whose function was similar to other classes of monument of rather different form.