View From The Tower

View From The Tower

Towers (or keeps) are the central part of any defensive castle plans. Often round and hollow they would have living quarters on the upper floors. If they were part of a town wall or an outer ring then the rear of the tower would often be open.

The largest tower was probably at Caernarvon castle which was 21m in diameter. Generally castle towers were half this size. A rectangular tower or keep suffered from the dead ground at its angles which effectively became a blind spot in the defenses and laid it appleby castle keepopen to mining as at Rochester castle.

Castles in France probably developed solutions to this quicker than anywhere else. The round defenses at Houdan (approx. 1110 AD to 1125 AD) being probably the first significant change.

Although polygonal keeps were quite rare in France the round tower was adopted much more quickly. Strangely round towers or keeps were developed much later in England.

Round towers can be built on square or rectangular bases such as at Cardigan castle. They can also be found on polygonal (usually semi-octagonal) bases such as at Picton (Pembroke).