A battlement is the upper walled part of a castle or fortress.
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Hoardings. Wooden structures added to the top of walls and towers to provide a covered walkway and a secure place for defensive fire. Sometimes they could be removed during peacetime.
In this wall were gaps or spaces called crenels, which were usually square or rectangular and placed at regular intervals. They're the distinct two- to three-foot-wide gaps you see at the very top of castle walls. Sometimes crenels are also called embrasures. Between the crenels were solid upright forms called merlons.
The top of the castle walls were the battlements, a protective, tooth shaped parapet often with a wall walk behind it for the soldiers to stand on. The defenders could fire missiles through gaps (crenels). The raised sections between, called merlons, helped to shelter the defenders during an enemy attack.
In architecture, the talus is a feature of some late medieval castles, especially prevalent in crusader constructions. It consists of a battered (sloping) face at the base of a fortified wall.
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.
Castle Battlements and ParapetsThe raised sections of the battlement were known as merlons and the lower parts were called crenels. Crenels, sometimes called embrasures, were regularly spaced gaps in the castle battlement. Castle defenders could take protection behind the merlons and fire arrows from the crenels.
Walls were generally built of stone within wooden frames designed to hold the stone in place while the mortar dried. For thick walls, the wall was usually constructed with a cavity that was filled with rubble rather than being solid stone. Where strength was not so vital, the cavity sometimes contained a staircase.
A portcullis is a heavy castle door or gate made of metal strips that form a grid. A castle guardian might lower the portcullis to protect the people inside from an invading army. It was common during medieval times for castles to be protected by a portcullis or two.
Turrets provided a projecting defensive position that covered fire to its adjacent walls. A turret could have a circular top with crenellations, a pointed roof, or an apex of some kind.