Glossary of Terms

A

* Ambulatory - Aisle round an apse.
* Apse - Rounded or polygonal building extension, usually of a chancel or chapel, with a domed or arched roof,.
* Arch - Can be round-headed, pointed, or two-centered, with each stone set a little further in until they meet, with a large capstone.
* Arrow Loop - A narrow vertical slit cut into a wall through which arrows could be fired from inside.
* Ashlar - Squared blocks of smooth stone neatly trimmed to shape.

B

* Bailey - The ward or courtyard inside the castle walls, includes exercise area, parade ground, emergency corral.
* Barbican - The gateway or outworks defending the drawbridge.
* Barrel vault - Cylindrical roof.
* Bartizan - An overhanging battlemented corner turret, corbelled out; common in Scotland and France.
* Bastion - A small tower at the end of a curtain wall or in the middle of the outside wall; solid masonry projection.
* Batter - A sloping part of a curtain wall. The sharp angle at the base of all walls and towers along their exterior surface.
* Battlement - Parapet with indentations or embrasures, with raised portions (merlons) between; crenelations.
* Belvedere - A raised turret or pavillion.
* Berm - Flat space between the base of the curtain wall and the inner edge of the moat; level area separating ditch from bank.
* Blockhouse - Small square fortification, usually of timber.
* Brattice - Timber tower or projecting wooden gallery; hoarding.
* Breastwork - Heavy parapet slung between two gate towers; defense work over the portcullis.
* Burh - Saxon stronghold; literally a "neighborhood".
* Buttery - Next to the kitchen, a room from where wine was dispensed.
* Buttress - Wall projection for extra support; flying - narrow, arched bridge against the structure.

C

* Capital - Distinctly treated upper end of a column.
* Casemates - Artillery emplacements in separate protected rooms, rather than in a battery.
* Cesspit - The opening in a wall in which the waste from one or more garderobes was collected.
* Chamfer - Surface made by smoothing off the angle between two stone faces.
* Chancel - The space surrounding the altar of a church.
* Chemise wall - Formed by a series of interlinked or overlapping semicircular bastions.
* Corbel - A projecting block of stone built into a wall during construction.
* Crenelation - Battlements at the top of a tower or wall.
* Cupola - Hemispherical armored roof.
* Curtain Wall - A connecting wall hung between two towers surrounding the bailey.

D

* Daub - A mud or clay mixture, often with cow manure, applied over wattle to strengthen and seal it.
* Donjon - A great tower or central stronghold..
* Drawbridge - A heavy timber platform built to span a moat between a gatehouse and surrounding land that could be raised.
* Drum Tower - A large, circular, low, squat tower built into a wall.
* Drystone - Unmortared masonry.
* Dungeon - The jail, usually found in one of the towers.

E

* Embattled - Battlemented; crenelated.
* Embrasure - The low segment of the altering high and low segments of a battlement.
* Enceinte - The enclosure or fortified area of a castle.

F

* Forebuilding - An extension to the keep, guarding it's entrance.
* Fosse - Ditch.

G

* Gallery - Long passage or room.
* Garderobe - A small latrine or toilet either built into the thickness of the wall or projected out from it.
* Gate House - The complex of towers, bridges, and barriers built to protect each entrance through a castle or town wall.
* Glacis - A bank sloping down from a castle which acts as a defence against invaders.
* Great chamber - Lord's solar, or bed-sitting room.
* Great Hall - The building in the inner ward that housed the main meeting and dining area for the castle's residence; throne room.

H

* Half-timber - Common form of medieval construction in which walls were made of a wood frame structure filled with wattle and daub.
* Hall - Principal room or building in complex.
* Hoarding - Upper wooden stories on a stone castle wall suspended from the tops of walls from which missiles could be dropped.

I

* Inner Ward - The open area in the center of a castle.

J

* Jamb - Side posts of arch, door, or window.

K

* Keep - The english word for a strong stone, main tower otherwise called a donjon.

L

* Loophole - Narrow, tall opening, wallslit for light, air, or shooting through.

M

* Machicolations - Projecting gallery on brackets, on outside of castle or towers, with holes in floor for dropping rocks, shooting, etc.
* Merlon - The high segment of the alternating high and low segments of a battlement.
* Meurtriere - An opening in the roof of a passage where soldiers could shoot into the room below. Also see "Murder Holes".
* Moat - A deep trench, preferably filled with water that surrounded a castle.
* Motte - A mound of earth on which a tower was built; artificial conical earth mound (sometimes an old barrow) for the keep.
* Motte-&-bailey - Earth mound with wood or stone keep, surrounded by ditched and palisaded enclosure (or courtyard).
* Mullion - Vertical division of windows.
* Mural - Wall (adjectival).
* Murder Holes - Between the main gate and an inner portcullis where arrows, rocks, and hot oil can be dropped on attackers.

N

O

* Oubliette - A dungeon reached by a trap door; starvation hole.
* Outer Curtain - The wall the encloses the outer ward.
* Outer Ward - The area around the outside of and adjacent to the inner curtain.

P

* Palisade - A sturdy wooden fence usually built to enclose a site until a permanent stone wall can be constructed.
* Parapet - Low wall on outer side of main wall. * Pediment - Low-pitched gable over porticos, doors, windows.
* Pele (or Peel) - A small tower; typically, a fortified house on the Scottish border.
* Piscina - Hand basin with drain, usually set against or into a wall.
* Portcullis - A heavy timber or metal grill that protected the castle entrance which can be raised or lowered from within the castle.
* Putlog - Beams placed in holes to support a hoarding; horizontal scaffold beam.
* Putlog Hole - A hole intentionally left in the surface of a wall for insertion of a horizontal pole.

Q

* Quadrangle - Inner courtyard.

R

* Rampart - Defensive stone or earth wall surrounding castle.
* Redoubt - Small self-contained fieldwork, a refuge for soldiers outside the main defenses.
* Refectory - Communal dining hall.
* Relieving arch - Arch built up in a wall to relieve thrust on another opening.
* Ringwork - Circular earthwork of bank and ditch.

S

* Salient - Wall projection, arrowhead.
* Sally-port - Small heavily fortified side door from which the defenders can rush out, strike, and retire.
* Scarp - Slope on inner side of ditch.
* Shell-keep - Circular or oval wall surrounding inner portion of castle; usually stores and accommodations inside the hollow walls.
* Solar - Upper living room , often over the great hall; the lord's private living room.
* Stockade - Solid fence of heavy timbers.

T

* Transom - Horizontal division of window; crossbar.
* Truss - A timber frame used to support the roof over the great hall.
* Turret - Small tower, round or polygonal; usually a lookout.

U

V

* Wall-walk - Passage along castle wall; may be roofed.
* Wattle - A mat of woven (willow) sticks and weeds; used in wall and dike construction.
* Wicket - Person-sized door set into the main gate door.

X

Y

* Yett - Iron lattice gate.

Z