How did castles defend against digging tunnels?

Often, tunnels were dug beneath a castle wall to destabilize and topple it. They supported their tunnels with timbers, which they then burned to collapse the tunnel—and, hopefully, the wall above. To defend themselves, castle dwellers put out a bowl of water and watched for ripples that might indicate digging.



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In addition to hidden passages, many castles had secret chambers that were used to store important documents or valuables. These chambers were often well hidden and could only be accessed through a secret door or trapdoor.

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The Keep or Donjon A 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.

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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.

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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.

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The Gate. The entrance was often the weakest part in a castle. To overcome this, the gatehouse was developed, allowing those inside the castle to control the flow of traffic. Gatehouses were inside the wall and connected with the bridge over the moat, but they were more than just doorways.

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Over the centuries around 23 different siege attempts were made on Edinburgh Castle – making it the most besieged place in Europe.

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Castles as prisons. Castles were ideal places to lock up prisoners, because they were strong buildings that were difficult to escape from. Prisoners were locked away in a tower or underground in a dungeon. In the Middle Ages, most prisoners were noblemen captured in war who were held for ransom.

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In the medieval period luxury castles were built with indoor toilets known as 'garderobes', and the waste dropped into a pit below.

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Purpose-built prison chambers in castles became more common after the twelfth century, when they were built into gatehouses or mural towers.

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