How did castles get attacked?

Fire - Early castles were made of wood, so they were easy to attack by setting fire to them. Battering ram - A large log that was hit against the castle walls to weaken them. Catapult - Catapults, or trebuchets, threw large stones and burning objects at the castle.



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For example, narrow arrow slits were replaced with wider gunloops. These allowed defenders to shoot cannon balls out of the castle towards the attackers. Attackers used cannons too. Cannons eventually became so powerful that castles couldn't defend against them any more and the time of castles came to an end.

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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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Soldiers either scaled walls with ladders or overran castle walls breached by tunnels, battering rams, or artillery. Sometimes they attacked two or three spots around the castle at once to surprise their foe or divide castle defenses, and sometimes they approached the wall hidden within a trench or tunnel.

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Speaking of canons, it is important to note that Edinburgh Castle is one of the most attacked places in the world. In other words, battles were waged, walls were destroyed, and the castle changed hands repeatedly throughout the course of 26 documented sieges over 1,100 years.

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After the 16th century, castles declined as a mode of defense, mostly because of the invention and improvement of heavy cannons and mortars. This artillery could throw heavy cannonballs with so much force that even strong curtain walls could not hold up.

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Castles, in particular, were instruments of war and occupying or levelling them was the goal of invading armies. In many cases, the castles were then taken over by the victors and re-purposed, but many were dismantled, particularly when the structure could no longer repel attacks by cannon.

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Arrow slits, also known as loopholes, were narrow openings in castle walls that allowed archers to shoot arrows at attackers while remaining protected behind the walls. These openings were designed to be very narrow, which made it difficult for attackers to shoot back, and also provided protection for the archers.

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In 1573, Edinburgh Castle was attacked by Sir William Drury, who led 1,000 English Troops with 27 cannons. They bombarded the castle with over 3,000 shots, destroying David's Tower and Constable's Tower.

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The Tower of London is the most secure castle in the UK. This mediaeval fortress has served as a royal palace, prison, execution ground, and military stronghold.

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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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Dover Castle, Kent: England's strongest castle
  • Dover Castle has been a Kent landmark for almost a millennium. ...
  • The imposing gate to Dover Castle. ...
  • Henry II (1133-89), the first Plantagenet king of England, ruled from 1154 until his death. ( ...
  • Aerial view of the Dover Castle. ...
  • The White Tower, Tower of London.


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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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