The motte-and-bailey castle consisted of an elevated mound of earth, called the motte, which was crowned with a timber palisade and surrounded by a defensive ditch that also separated the motte from a palisaded outer compound, called the bailey.
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The Keep or DonjonA keep was the big tower and usually the most strongly defended point of a castle before the introduction of concentric defence. Keep was not a term used in the medieval period – the term was applied from the 16th century onwards – instead donjon was used to refer to central towers.
The keep was the building where the owners of the castle would live. It was the safest place in the castle. The bailey was open, flat ground surrounded by a tall, wooden fence, often topped with spikes.
What other rooms were there in a Medieval castle? At the time of Chr tien de Troyes, the rooms where the lord of a castle, his family and his knights lived and ate and slept were in the Keep (called the Donjon), the rectangular tower inside the walls of a castle. This was meant to be the strongest and safest place.
They were designed to be difficult to attack and easy to defend. Castles protected owners from rivals and invaders; however, castles were also used to protect the local citizens. Early castles were built in the 9th and 10th centuries and were constructed of earth and wood; usually constructed on higher ground.
Across Europe, motte-and-bailey construction came to an end. At the end of the 12th century, the Welsh rulers began to build castles in stone, primarily in the principality of North Wales and usually along the higher peaks where mottes were unnecessary.