Plate 59:  Constructing the Black Castle, Part 25: a night-scout's view of a corbelled-out battlement
(This plate added MAR 2004)

Here we see the Black Castle from the viewpoint of an enemy scout performing a reconnaissance of this newly-constructed castle on a clear moonlit night. Imagine yourself to be that scout, armed with a sword, perhaps a dagger, and protected only by a helmet and a small battle-shield on your arm. --more--

Imagine, also, that the crenellated battlement has been completed, and that it extends around the entire wall-walk. Those shadowed spaces between the corbels might, or might not, be machicolated. That is, defensive openings might, or might not, be concealed in the deep shadows between the corbels. You want to evade detection, so you walk in a crouching posture close to the base of the curtain wall. At any instant, your skull might be crushed, or your back broken, by a silently falling stone, dropped through a shadowed machicolation by an alert defender who was waiting, invisible to you, behind one of the tall merlons of the crenellated battlement. Or, perhaps the castle's architect forgot to machicolate the battlement. There is no safe way for you to tell, so you continue with your reconnaissance along the base of the curtain wall, risking capture, injury, or sudden death. Go to top of page