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The rural motte-and-bailey castles followed the traditional design, but the urban castles often lacked the traditional baileys, using parts of the town to fulfil this role instead. [73] Motte-and-bailey castles in Flanders were particularly numerous in the south along the Lower Rhine, a fiercely contested border. [74]
This digital elevation model shows the motte just left of centre, with the bailey to the right (north-east) of it. [1] A motte-and-bailey is a form of castle, with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised earthwork called a motte, accompanied by an enclosed courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade.
Reconstruction of Twthill Castle in the 11th century. Twthill castle was built to a 'motte and bailey' design and was erected by Robert of Rhuddlan in 1073. He was a kinsman of Hugh d'Avranches, Earl of Chester and the castle was designed to consolidate Norman advances into the north of Wales at the command of William the Conqueror.
A 19th-century reconstruction of the keep at Château d'Étampes. Since the 16th century, the English word keep has commonly referred to large towers in castles. [4] The word originates from around 1375 to 1376, coming from the Middle English term kype, meaning basket or cask, and was a term applied to the shell keep at Guînes, said to resemble a barrel. [5]
Prestatyn Castle occupies a low-lying position, but still commands a view across much of the flat coastal plain and guarded the coast road between Rhuddlan and Chester. [2] The only remains of the castle are a raised mound about 20 m (66 ft) in diameter surrounded by a ditch. The bailey enclosed the whole of the motte, an unusual arrangement.
The bailey is defined by the remains of an inner bank of earth and stone, a wide, deep, intervening fosse (width: 12 m (39 ft)) and a wide, high outer bank (width: c. 10 m (33 ft); height: c. 2 m (6.6 ft)). The fragmentary remains of a later castle are visible in the SE face of the motte.
Totnes Castle is one of the best preserved examples of a Norman motte and bailey castle in England. [1] It is situated in the town of Totnes on the River Dart in Devon. The surviving stone keep and curtain wall date from around the 14th century. From after the Norman Conquest of 1066 it was the caput of the Feudal barony of Totnes.
The motte or mound is about 70 metres in diameter at the base and is surrounded by a wet ditch up to 15 metres wide. A kidney-shaped inner bailey is to the west of the motte and there is a second bailey to the east. The remains of a town enclosure embankment extend to the west. [6]