h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Apart from the walls a castle has many parts, and all are different. The part all castles however is the outer wall. This is the first line of defence and where the most effort of the builder is put into making the castle hard to attack.

Now the outer wall or curtain wall is the main defensive element, in order to defend the outer wall there are one or two structural elements that have been added over the years.

The battlements
The first thing was to provide protection for the defenders on the top of the wall.
From the very first castles had battlementsAlso called crenulations. To build a castle you needed permission of the king or other person licensed by the king to grant a permit known as a license to crenel late.. This comprised a walkway along the top of the main wall An allure the name for the walk way accessed stairway from the inside of the curtain wall., with a wall on the outer edge. The wall had sections of a meter in width
The Hoarding
As effective as the battlements were even the best designed castle had blind spots, these were at the base of the walls. The hording was a projecting enclosed gallery erected in front of the battlements, these allowed the defenders to see and fire upon the attackers there were even apertures in the floor to fire on attackers beneath them.

The machicolations
In the late middle ages the hording evolved into a stone built structure that served the same purpose of the hording. This had two advantages, it was impervious to fire and it lasted longer as it did not rot away.

The Walls
As missile technology improved it became advantageous to fire through the walls and from the interior of towers and other structures.
The first of these adoptions were arrow loops or slits. A vertical slot between one and three meters in height and 12 inches wide inside and narrowing to two inches on the outer face

The Second Stage
In the 1300’s the bottom of the slit was widened to give a greater field of fire. Also at this time the crossbow became widespread and the slit was given a horizontal slitIt has been noted that up to three horizontal slits can be found at various castles. to allow for the use of these weapons. Another feature that came in at this time were circular holes on the ends of the slits, these were called ollets.


The Third Stage
Black powder weapons were now starting to become widespread from this time the arrow slit was replaced with a gon or gun loop. The first of these were similar to the original arrow loop with a large circular hole at the bottom this style known as a key hole gun loop, gave way in time to a horizontal gun slit from 1660 onward.


Other Elements

The barbican


the bartizan.


The bastion


The batter