Putlog holes

Putlog holes

Putlog holes were small holes deliberately left in castle walls and, in well-preserved castles like Beaumaris, can be seen to this day.

As the name implies, putlog holes were intended to receive the ends of logs (i.e. squared wooden beams). Sometimes these logs were used for temporary scaffolding in construction, and sometimes they seem to have been used to ease the construction of hoardings. Evidence for the former can sometimes be seen from the spiral pattern they have left on the surface of round towers.

The inconseqential size and the spacing of the holes meant that they did not affect the solidity of the walls.

Hoardings were useful, as they gave archers greater mobility and a wider field of fire in times of siege; they also (through holes in the floor) facilitated dropping boulders (etc) directly onto the enemy's heads, without the need to expose oneself to danger.


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