Mediæval Military Architecture in England, Volume 1 (of 2)

by George Thomas Clark

The Hall stands upon a vaulted chamber, now filled up with rubbish. It occupies the space between the north and south towers, which it connects, its outer wall forming the curtain between them. It is rectangular, 30 feet 8 inches by 17 feet 8 inches, vaulted, with a pointed arch, and having its outer wall 7 feet, and its inner wall 6 feet, thick. In the former are three loops, splayed towards the interior, and having pointed heads. They are high above the base of the wall, and command a fine view. The door was near the north end of the opposite side, and possibly there may have been a fireplace on the same side with the door. At the south end is a window, which opens into a sort of gallery in the south tower.

Above the vaulted roof was, probably, a platform, with a low battlement towards the court, and a high one towards the exterior of the castle. This platform communicated with the north and south towers directly, and with the court by a narrow stair, already noticed as leading to the upper chamber of the north tower. The hall is now much mutilated, the vault and part of the east wall being destroyed.

The great curtain is a large irregular segment of a circle, about 80 feet exterior face, and with a chord of about 60 feet. It originally was a wall 3 feet thick, which appears to have been found of insufficient breadth for the use of military engines on the north and north-east battlements, upon these, the weakest sides of the fortress; wherefore a parallel wall was built within and against it, 6 feet thick, extending the whole way from the north to the east tower. The old wall contains seven loops at the courtyard level, and to preserve these an arch, 6 feet diameter, is turned in the new work, opposite to each. Above, there is, of course, a rampart walk of ample width, entered from the tower at either end. The exterior of this wall, below the level of the court, is strengthened by a stone facing, forming the scarp of its moat. This curtain remains tolerably perfect. There is a breach near its junction with the north tower, and the new and inner wall is wanting opposite to the four loops, though traces of it are discernible in the mortar upon the old wall.

The Gatehouse Curtain is much less perfect. It appears to have been slightly convex in plan towards the exterior, and about 28 feet in length between the south and east towers, from both of which its ramparts were, no doubt, entered. It is about 5 feet thick. One loop remains, about 6 feet above the courtyard level, which could only have been used by means of a platform, perhaps of timber. Twenty-one feet from its junction with the east tower, a small half-round tower seems to have projected from the curtain, serving, no doubt, to defend the gateway, which seems to have lain between this and the south tower, and probably consisted in a simple archway and passage, with a portcullis and doors. That the entrance was here, and between these towers, is certain from the causeway leading to it, but the gate-tower, and most of the curtain, are utterly gone.

Thus much of the castle. We next reach the Outworks.

The south and north tower, and the hall curtain, needed no exterior defence. They rise from a very steep bank, and their foundations are of scarped rock and solid masonry. They are quite unassailable from below. The other two sides are more exposed. In front of the south tower is the commencement of the moat, broken by a causeway opposite to the inner gateway, and leading from it to the outer court. Beyond the causeway the moat deepens, and is carried round the east tower and great curtain, steep and deep, and hewn in the rock, so as to render this, the naturally weaker side, very strong. The moat, which must always have been dry, ends, opposite to the north tower, in a curious excavation, resembling a water-tank, which, however, it could scarcely have been.

The outer court of the castle occupies the remainder or east end of the natural platform. Its dimensions are about 100 feet long by 40 feet wide. Its southern side, a continuation of the line of the same face of the castle, was defended by a precipice, partly natural, partly scarped by art, though now broken down and filled up. There are no traces of a wall on this side, but probably there was a parapet.

The opposite, north, or landward, side, is defended by a branch from the moat, which, after being interrupted and traversed by a causeway, sweeps round the east end of the works, and terminates in a deep and broad excavation, which is carried to the brink of the cliff, and thus defends also the east end of this outer court.

The west end of the platform, or that towards the castle, is cut off from that building by its proper moat, traversed, as already mentioned, by the causeway leading to the inner gateway. There is no evidence of any walled defence to this court, and yet, without such, the moat on the land side would scarcely have been sufficient to delay an enemy, so as to expose him to the fire from the east tower and gateway curtain, upon which the defence of this side depended.

As the principal object was to command the regular approach from the eastward, the defences were prolonged in this direction. Outside, and on the counterscarp of the moat of the outer court, and 6 feet from the edge of the south precipice, there are traces of a tower, about 30 feet diameter, with what may have been a sort of buttress on its southern side, extending to the precipice. Opposite, on its northern side, and at its junction with a lower curtain, is what appears to have been a well-stair, or the foundation of a distinct turret. There is no moat to the east of the tower, but the ground falls in a natural scarp.