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Medieval Castles
At Falaise in France, a round keep was built right alongside a rectangular keep making clear the advantages of accommodation in a rectangular plan despite the round keep's five floors. The best preserved and most unusual example of a polygonal keep was built at Orford in Suffolk, by Henry II. Orford has so many sides, approximately twenty, that it is practically circular and three rectangular towers dominate it, evenly positioned. The rectangular towers defeat the object of a polygonal keep by creating the same problem of vulnerable corners that a rectangular keep suffers.
The Shell Keep
Another type of round keep is the shell keep. A shell keep is an enclosure rather than a tower and consists of a low wall that circles the top edge of a mound with domestic buildings against the inside of the wall, creating a courtyard in the centre.
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Cardiff Castle has a twelve sided
polygonal keep that stands on a mound |
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Some were built in the early years of the Norman Conquest while others were replacements in stone of wooden palisades. The shell keep created an answer to problems concerning the defensive mound. The earth of a newly built mound took time to settle and therefore it was not possible, for a considerable amount of time, to build a stone keep at its summit for fear of the keep sinking. A shell keep evenly distributed the weight around the edge of the summit so making it possible to build a stone keep on a young mound. A famous example of a shell keep is the one at Windsor and although this is now largely nineteenth century; the lower half was built by Henry II in 1175. There is an example of a polygonal keep at Cardiff which is twelve sided and stands on a mound.
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