Glossary

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 fire 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 arrow.

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 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 merlon (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. The indoor bathroom.

Gate House: the complex of towers, bridges, and barriers built to protect each entrance through a castle or town wall.

Hall: principle 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, let down to protect the gate.

Postern Gate: secondary gate or door in 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 used for knocking down gates & doors.

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.

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.

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