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What are the small holes in castle walls called?

Putlog holes or putlock holes are small holes made in the walls of structures to receive the ends of poles (small round logs) or beams, called putlogs or putlocks, to support a scaffolding. Putlog holes may extend through a wall to provide staging on both sides of the wall. Putlog holes in Cardiff castle.



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A murder hole or meurtrière is a hole in the ceiling of a gateway or passageway in a fortification through which the defenders could shoot, throw or pour harmful substances or objects such as rocks, arrows, scalding water, hot sand, quicklime, or boiling oil, down on attackers.

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Introduction. Putlog holes (also referred to as putlock holes or putholes) are small gaps or recesses incorporated into the construction of a stone or brick wall. Their purpose is to support the short horizontal beams or round poles known as putlogs (or putlocks).

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Battlements were most often found surmounting curtain walls and the tops of gatehouses, and comprised several elements: crenellations, hoardings, machicolations, and loopholes. Crenellation is the collective name for alternating crenels and merlons: gaps and solid blocks on top of a wall.

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As the gate is always a vulnerable point of a castle, towers may be built near it to strengthen the defences at this point. In crusader castles, there is often a gate tower, with the gate passage leading through the base of the tower itself.

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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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Battlements were defensive parapets along the tops of castles. Battlements consisted of alternating raised spaces called merlons and the lower spaces called crenels. Battlements were created from stone and were originally designed to help protect the castle from invading forces.

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A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building, or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence.

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A bailey is the sturdy wall around a castle that keeps invaders out. The bailey of a medieval castle was usually built of stone. You might see a bailey — or the remains of one — if you tour a castle in England or France.

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Article Talk. A chemin de ronde (French, round path' or patrol path; French pronunciation: [??m?~ d? ??~d]), also called an allure, alure or, more prosaically, a wall-walk, is a raised protected walkway behind a castle battlement.

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Batter (Plinth) The angled lower part of a tower or wall. Missiles dropped from the top of the towers or wall onto the plinth cause them to richochet horizontally into the attackers doing more damage. Plinths also strengthened the bases of the towers or walls and also made it harder to undermine them.

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