William E Cullen

Castle Visits Logbook William E Cullen

Castle VisitsDescriptionAs a type of fortified building and mainly built in the middle ages by the rich, nobles and royalty, it became their fortress and home. Knights in their armour, jousting and chivalry between them were seen as the order of the day. On the other hand some castles even included prisons, such as The Tower of London, and dungeons (donjons) where people were tortured and incarcerated. Some features of castles are Mottes, which were excavations of earth to form ramparts, and Bailey, a fortified enclosure placed on top of the Motte. Keeps soon became stone structures, sometimes going up to very high and commanding levels (e.g. Rochester Castle Keep goes up more than 100 feet). Outer walls could be as much as 3m thick and up to 12m tall, making scaling them difficult, to withstand siege and bombardment. They can often be identified with their crenellated roof structures, arrow slits and towers. These would be placed where they could make use of flanking arrow fire (sideways). Still others uses concentric defences, such as invaders had to go round and round before entering the central area. Of course they came under fire all the time. A lot of castles are surrounded by water filled moats. Some castles are still inhabited today, the most famous of which is Windsor Castle a residence of the Queen of England. In all some 1500 castles have been identified in the UK, many are mere marks in the ground, whereas others are practiacally still complete. The oldest castles are Berkhamstead and Norwich which were both built in 1067. Castles appear all around the world, notably in India and Japan. However you will probably be interested in the ones in the UK. The logbook is 120 pages long and 8.5" x 11" with a quality spine and soft cover.