What Was the Purpose of a Moat in a Medieval Castle?
A moat was a ditch, usually filled with water, which surrounded a castle or other fortified building. It was intended to make attacking the castle much more difficult, because it was hard for attackers to climb the castle walls having waded or swum across the water and it also meant that access to the building could be restricted to just one entrance, which could be heavily guarded. Anyone who attempted to swim across the water was highly vulnerable to attackers from above, on the battlements, or at the windows of the castle. When building a castle, the planners would ensure that the building would be near to supplies of fresh water, which were needed by all households and some of this supply would be dammed to provide water to fill the moat. The moat could be made even more perilous with the addition on wooden stakes, to further hamper any would-be attackers. document.getElementById(‘adsense_placeholder_2’).innerHTML = document.getElementById(‘adsense_ad_2_hidden’).innerHTML; Some moa
