Towers heavily depend on the location: As part of the wall on a field, you want them as strong as possible. On a rock, you can often get away with much thinner walls and you might even transition to Fachwerk to maximise floorspace, as that comes at a premium. Watchtowers, signal towers, and keeps are of course very different as well...
You will never see a round tower as a gatehouse. This has multiple reasons: 1) square and polygonal towers allow for concentrated fire in specific directions. In the case of a gate, you want as many loopholes facing anyone approaching it. 2) It's a bit more difficult to put a door into a round tower and the bigger the door the harder it gets. This also translates to drawbridges and portcullis... 3) As mentioned: internal space. Gatehouses often housed guards and materials for defending the gate. In addition, they may have murderholes in between gates.
Just found your excellent channel. I make miniature models and dioramas, and am looking to make a myth -busting castle that gives a truly authentic picture of a middle- medieval period, machicolated castle shortly after construction. I’m intrigued by open tower tops, how common they were, and what the advantages of that design were, as surely a roof would be more practical in every respect? I’m interested in how the stairwells up to them were protected from ingress of rainfall e.g was there a small roof and a door or a trapdoor hatch? Also, did they have a raised roof section in the centre and how were they drained? I’m also interested in ramparts and whether there was a hand/guard rail on the inside. They are often depicted as being open and I wonder about the risk of people slipping off them in icy conditions. Would rampart walkways be stone or timber-lined or even gravelled? Lastly, I’m interested in whether outside walls had opaque render or were simply lime-washed stone? I guess few people would be interested in this level of detail so you may not want to do a video on all this but I would be most grateful for your thoughts on this, please. Thank you very much
Thanks for the comment! I am not an expert but I will try to answer your questions to the best of my knowledge. -Regarding the open tower tops, I'm not sure how common they were but they'd be more common in earlier times and become less common as time went on. They did still have advantages such as lower construction cost and they would have been able to have more people on them to defend the castle during an attack, as well as being able to house a trebuchet or catapult on top (I'm not sure how much this was done however, so take that with a grain of salt) It would also be easier to haul supplies up the tower. As to how it was excessed I'd say in smaller towers it would have been a ladder with a trap door or maybe even an external staircase depending on how short the tower was. in larger towers they could've had a smaller tower/turret on top of the tower roof which held/protected the stairwell. As to drainage of rainwater I'm not sure how it was done. -Regarding the ramparts, Some had handrails but these were mainly made out of wood anchored into the wall with a similar method as hoardings (I talk about hoardings in my "All Parts of a Castle Wall and What They Were Used For" video). The walkways themselves would either be stone or wood (I don't think they were graveled) -Regarding outside of the wall I believe it was just a limewash mostly for esthetic reasons, I don't think they would have done a full render but I haven't looked into it too much so I could be wrong. Most of the answers I gave are based on my opinion and from what I have come across in my research this far so don't regard it as fact but I hope my answers helped :) I plan to make future videos on some more in detail aspects to castles so I might cover these topics in future videos.
@@KobeanHistory Thanks very much. Very kind of you to reply so fully. How do you think the lime wash would look? Would it be a consistent white like a paint job or more of a transparent overwash? Btw are you familiar with the Shadiversity YT channel? You guys would probably gain a lot from each other.
I'm not quite sure I think the main point would have been that it would have to look solid from a distance to impress the people. Yes, I like Shadiversity he makes good videos.
@@RockHudrock Thanks very much. Went round it once as a child and more recently I used to go an admire it after closing time as I did some training a few miles away and couldn’t get there during the daytime. Will see if I can find some drone footage or maybe use Google Earth
I really like this type of content (also the proffesion series) keep it up!
nice breakdown
Can’t wait for your next castle video :p
“D” towers are like the mullet. Business in the front & a party in the back!
Thank you for helping to make this kind of knowledge so accessible :)
Thankyou for providing this knowledge. I will using this knowledge in making a Medivial castle style mordern town.
Thanks for information
Towers heavily depend on the location:
As part of the wall on a field, you want them as strong as possible.
On a rock, you can often get away with much thinner walls and you might even transition to Fachwerk to maximise floorspace, as that comes at a premium.
Watchtowers, signal towers, and keeps are of course very different as well...
You will never see a round tower as a gatehouse. This has multiple reasons:
1) square and polygonal towers allow for concentrated fire in specific directions. In the case of a gate, you want as many loopholes facing anyone approaching it.
2) It's a bit more difficult to put a door into a round tower and the bigger the door the harder it gets. This also translates to drawbridges and portcullis...
3) As mentioned: internal space. Gatehouses often housed guards and materials for defending the gate. In addition, they may have murderholes in between gates.
Just found your excellent channel. I make miniature models and dioramas, and am looking to make a myth -busting castle that gives a truly authentic picture of a middle- medieval period, machicolated castle shortly after construction. I’m intrigued by open tower tops, how common they were, and what the advantages of that design were, as surely a roof would be more practical in every respect? I’m interested in how the stairwells up to them were protected from ingress of rainfall e.g was there a small roof and a door or a trapdoor hatch? Also, did they have a raised roof section in the centre and how were they drained? I’m also interested in ramparts and whether there was a hand/guard rail on the inside. They are often depicted as being open and I wonder about the risk of people slipping off them in icy conditions. Would rampart walkways be stone or timber-lined or even gravelled? Lastly, I’m interested in whether outside walls had opaque render or were simply lime-washed stone?
I guess few people would be interested in this level of detail so you may not want to do a video on all this but I would be most grateful for your thoughts on this, please. Thank you very much
Thanks for the comment! I am not an expert but I will try to answer your questions to the best of my knowledge.
-Regarding the open tower tops, I'm not sure how common they were but they'd be more common in earlier times and become less common as time went on. They did still have advantages such as lower construction cost and they would have been able to have more people on them to defend the castle during an attack, as well as being able to house a trebuchet or catapult on top (I'm not sure how much this was done however, so take that with a grain of salt) It would also be easier to haul supplies up the tower. As to how it was excessed I'd say in smaller towers it would have been a ladder with a trap door or maybe even an external staircase depending on how short the tower was. in larger towers they could've had a smaller tower/turret on top of the tower roof which held/protected the stairwell. As to drainage of rainwater I'm not sure how it was done.
-Regarding the ramparts, Some had handrails but these were mainly made out of wood anchored into the wall with a similar method as hoardings (I talk about hoardings in my "All Parts of a Castle Wall and What They Were Used For" video). The walkways themselves would either be stone or wood (I don't think they were graveled)
-Regarding outside of the wall I believe it was just a limewash mostly for esthetic reasons, I don't think they would have done a full render but I haven't looked into it too much so I could be wrong. Most of the answers I gave are based on my opinion and from what I have come across in my research this far so don't regard it as fact but I hope my answers helped :) I plan to make future videos on some more in detail aspects to castles so I might cover these topics in future videos.
@@KobeanHistory Thanks very much. Very kind of you to reply so fully. How do you think the lime wash would look? Would it be a consistent white like a paint job or more of a transparent overwash? Btw are you familiar with the Shadiversity YT channel? You guys would probably gain a lot from each other.
I'm not quite sure I think the main point would have been that it would have to look solid from a distance to impress the people. Yes, I like Shadiversity he makes good videos.
Check out Carnaervon castle in Wales. Lots of amazing features & open-top and roofed towers.
@@RockHudrock Thanks very much. Went round it once as a child and more recently I used to go an admire it after closing time as I did some training a few miles away and couldn’t get there during the daytime. Will see if I can find some drone footage or maybe use Google Earth
Papperback DK Eyewitness Book of CASTLE.
*Me on westeroscraft wanting to find some tower inspiration.... finds kobe* :D
You could call these turrets