Parts of a Castle

Parts of a Castle


 * Allure or Wall-walk: passage behind the parapet of a castle wall
 * Apse: circular or polygonal end of a tower or chapel
 * Arcading: rows of arches supported on columns, free-standing or attached to a wall (blind arcade)
 * Arrow Loop: A narrow vertical slit cut into a wall through which arrows could be fired from inside
 * Ashlar: blocks of smooth, squared stone of any kind
 * Bailey or Ward: courtyard within the walls of the castle
 * Ballista: engine resembling a crossbow, used in hurling missiles or large arrows
 * Barbican: an outwork or forward extension of a castle gateway
 * Barrel vault: semicircular roof of stone & timber
 * Bartizan: overhanging corner turret
 * Bastion: a small tower at the end of a curtain wall or in the middle of the outside wall
 * Battlement: a narrow wall built along the outer edge of the wall walk to protect soldiers against attack
 * Belfry: tall, movable wooden tower on wheels, used in sieges
 * Brattice: (see hoarding)
 * Buttery: room for the service of beverages
 * Concentric: having two sets of walls, one inside the other
 * Crenelation: a notched battlement made up of alternate crenels (openings) and merlons (square sawteeth)
 * Cross-wall: an internal dividing wall in a great tower
 * Curtain wall: a castle wall enclosing a courtyard
 * Cut: assault tower
 * Corbel: stone bracket projecting from a wall or corner to support a beam
 * Donjon: the inner stronghold (keep) of a castle
 * Drawbridge: a wooden bridge leading to a gateway, capable of being raised or lowered
 * Drum Tower: a round tower built into a wall
 * Dungeon: the jail, usually found in one of the towers
 * Enceinte: an enclosing wall, usually exterior, of a fortified place
 * Embrasure: the low segment of the altering high and low segments of a battlement
 * Escalade: scaling of a castle wall
 * Finial: a slender piece of stone used to decorate the tops of the merlons
 * Forebuilding: a projection in front of a keep or donjon, containing the stairs to the main entrance
 * Garderobe: latrine
 * Gate House: the complex of towers, bridges, and barriers built to protect each entrance through a castle or town wall
 * Hall: principal living quarters of a medieval castle or house
 * Hoarding: covered wooden gallery affixed to the top of the outside of a tower or curtain to defend the castle
 * Inner Ward or Inner Bailey: open area in the center of a castle
 * Keep: the inner stronghold of the castle
 * Loophole: slit in wall for light, air, or shooting through
 * Machicolation: a projection in the battlements of a wall with openings through which missiles could be dropped on besiegers
 * Mangonel: stone:throwing machine worked by torsion, used as a siege weapon against castles
 * Merlon: part of a battlement, the square "sawtooth" between crenels
 * Meurtriere: arrow loop, slit in battlement or wall to permit firing of arrows or for observation
 * Moat: a deep trench usually filled with water that surrounded a castle
 * Motte: an earthwork mound on which a castle was built
 * Murder Holes: a section between the main gate and a inner portcullis where arrows, rocks, and hot oil could be dropped from the roof though holes
 * Oilette: a round opening at the base of a loophole
 * Oriel or Oriel Window: projecting room on an upper floor, later an upper-floor bay window
 * Oubliette: a dungeon reached by a trap door
 * Palisade: a sturdy wooden fence built to enclose a site until a permanent stone wall could be constructed
 * Parapet: protective wall at the top of a fortification, around the outer side of the wall-walk
 * Portcullis: vertical sliding wooden grille shod with iron suspended in front of a gateway designed to protect the gate
 * Postern Gate: a secondary gate or door often located at the rear of the castle.
 * Putlog Hole: a hole intentionally left in the surface of a wall for insertion of a horizontal pole
 * Ram: battering ram
 * Revet: face with a layer of stone, stone slabs etc., for more strength. Some earth mottes were revetted with stone.
 * Sapping: undermining, as of a castle wall
 * Screens: wooden partition at the kitchen end of a hall, protecting a passage leading to the buttery, pantry, and kitchen
 * Solar: originally a room above ground level, but commonly applied to the great chamber or a private sitting room off the great hall
 * Springald: war engine of the catapult type, employing tension
 * Trebuchet: war engine developed in the Middle Ages employing counterpoise
 * Turning Bridge: a drawbridge that pivoted in the middle
 * Turret: a small tower rising above and resting on one of the main towers, usually used as a look out point
 * Wall Walk: the area along the tops of the walls from which soldiers could defend the castle
 * Ward: courtyard or bailey