Defences At Kennilworth Castle.

DEFENCES AT KENNILWORTH CASTLE

THE GREAT MERE

The Mere was a big lake at the back of the castle. It is not there anymore but there is some evidence of its existence. There are bull-rushes and moorland grass growing where it used to be. This stretched over half a mile.

THE BARBICAN AND GATEHOUSE

The gatehouse is at the front of the castle. It has two towers at the front. They had a D-Plan shape. These two towers had crossbow arrow slits in them. You can tell there was a portcullis because of the grooves in walls. You could also see some remains of hinges so this suggests that there must have been a gate in the barbican. You can tell that soldiers stayed in the gatehouse because of the latrines on the second floor. There was also a fireplace on the second floor. This must have been where the soldiers boiled the oil or water to pour down the murder holes in the ceiling.

THE CASTLE WALLS

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THE CASTLE WALLS

The castle had curtain walls. One wall surrounded the keep. The other was a much thicker, taller wall surrounding the entire castle. This had all sorts of arrow slits in them. It had crossbow arrow slits, fishtail arrow slits and normal thin straight slits. The outside wall must have been an extra story or two higher because you could see the bottom of the fishtail arrow slits at the top. Then there would have been the battlements on top of that. The outside wall had four towers along it. These were named Mortimers tower. That was the gatehouse. Then there was the Water tower. I guess this got its name because of all of the water that would have surrounded it from the moat. This had arrow slits in it. Next along was Lunns tower. This tower was huge. This was where the castle would have been easiest to attack. This is because the land was too high for the moat. So they built this tower to protect this part of the castle. It is a round tower. It had the old style arrow slits and fishtail arrow slits. It also had a latrine on the left-hand side. You could tell it was taller because you could see the bottom of the fishtail arrow slits at the top. It also was missing the battlements. Further along the wall was Swan tower. This was a smaller tower. It was also square. The great Mere would have surrounded this. The whole of the outside wall on the south and east side had buttresses and plinths along it. This made it harder to mine under the walls.

THE KEEP

This was at the centre of the castle. This was the safest part of the castle. The well was in the keep. So was the food. This is because if the castle were under siege the people in the castle wouldn’t starve or dehydrate. The keep had buttresses and plinths to hold the weight and make it harder to tunnel underneath. There were grooves in the wall suggesting there may have been a portcullis protecting the keep. There were three types of windows in the keep. These were round arch windows, square windows and fishtail arrow slits. The round arch windows and square windows were added at a later date for decoration. A clock was also put up outside the keep for decoration. The keep would have been taller because there were no battlements on the top. The keep roof was also missing. There was some evidence of habitation inside the keep. There were fireplaces, latrines, a stairway and a well. The keep had been altered. A lot of the arrow slits had been knocked out and bigger, decorative windows had been put in their place.