Fort of Mounjoy
Fort of Mounjoy is an English Country Dance. It was devised by Nathaniel Kynaston in 1710 and published in Twenty Four New Country Dances for the Year 1710. It was interpreted by Andrew Shaw sometime before 2026-03-25. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.
I can't find Kynaston's original, but John Young republished it as Fort Mounjoy the same year:
Note: Each Strain is to be play'd twice over.
The 1st Cu. cross over below the 2d Cu. the 1st Man turn the 2d Man half round and cast off, the 1st Wo. at the same Time turn the 3d Wo. half round, and cast up Then cross up and Figure thro' the 2d Cu. The 1st Man change Place with the 2d Wo. and the 1st Wo. and 2d Man the same, all four clap Hands and turn single Then Right and Left half round, clap Hands and cast off
Or thus: The 1st Cu cast off behind the 2d Cu. then cast off behind the 3d Cu. Then cast up again the same, till they come to the Top then the 1st Man change places with the 2d Wo.and the 2d Man with the 1st Wo. and half round and cast off, then Right and Left quite round, which brings them into the 2d Cu. Place Then lead thro' at Bottom and cast up, and lead thro' at Top and cast off, and turn
(Young, or one of the dancing masters he consulted, often provides a second figure when he copies a dance from Kynaston). The first version appears to be Kynaston's.
The animation plays at 120 counts per minute normally, but the first time through the set the dance will often be slowed down so people can learn the moves more readily. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color, however the border of each dancer indicates what role they currently play so the border color may change each time through the minor set.
The dance contains the following figures: hand turn (allemande), set, turn single, cast, lead, figure eight, rights and lefts, cross go below, change (and probably others).
If you find what you believe to be a mistake in this animation, please leave a comment on youtube explaining what you believe to be wrong. If I agree with you I shall do my best to fix it.
If you wish to link to this animation please see my comments on the transience of my youtube URLs. You may freely link to this page, of course, and that should have no problems, but use one of my redirects when linking to the youtube video itself:
https://www.upadouble.info/redirect.php?id=FortOfMounjoy
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. I do not have a date for the interpretation, so it may be under copyright. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2026 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This website is copyright © 2021-2026 by George W. Williams V
My work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Most of the dances have more restrictive licensing, see my notes on copyright, the individual dance pages should mention when some rights are waived.