grahamguitarman
Sage
To give you an idea of a 'normal' castle (ie not Royal residence) here is a link to the site of my local castle at Conisbrough, with loads of info and floor plans of the keep (look in vital statistics).
Conisbrough Castle
This castle was actually the inspiration for the novel 'Ivanhoe' by sir Walter Scott in 1819, he wrote the novel while staying at the Boat Inn, a local pub 3 miles from my house.
There are some interesting artists impressions on there too - though the artist was not very good at getting the scale right, the rooms look too cramped and the courtyard too small!
The thirty foot limit sounds about right to me for a castle interior, I've not seen many keeps with internal dimensions greater than that. Also the walls tend to be very thick - usually 1.5-2m for a city wall, about 3-4m for an outer castle wall, and up to 6m for a keep wall. Very often the stairwells were built into the 'body' of the keep walls to save space in the inner rooms - resulting in very narrow and claustrophobic stairways.
If you look at the overall plan of the castle there is a great hall outside of the keep that would have been the communal space for all those outside the lords closest aides/family. This had a huge Fireplace which would have provided heat & much of the light, candles would have most likely only been used on special occasions.
As has already been said there was no real privacy in a castle (or any family home come to that) - think open plan, communal army barracks and communal eating/social area.
Also the castle was built to maximise the natural defenses provided by the hill, by building as close to the steeper edges as possible, increasing the difficulty of assaulting those walls (and decreasing the critical defense areas). Nearly all the castles I have seen in my travels have been placed at the edges of high, steep sided hills for this very reason. This also gave the occupants commanding views over the countryside which added to the strategic advantage.
I agree that no-one would build a tower outside of the castle walls - even for a bridge! think about it, if you retreat into the castle walls, you are leaving an exterior fortification your enemies can use against you! There would sometimes be a gatehouse on the other side of the bridge, but this would be a wooden construction - easy to set fire to if captured by enemies.
Hope this is of some use
Conisbrough Castle
This castle was actually the inspiration for the novel 'Ivanhoe' by sir Walter Scott in 1819, he wrote the novel while staying at the Boat Inn, a local pub 3 miles from my house.
There are some interesting artists impressions on there too - though the artist was not very good at getting the scale right, the rooms look too cramped and the courtyard too small!
The thirty foot limit sounds about right to me for a castle interior, I've not seen many keeps with internal dimensions greater than that. Also the walls tend to be very thick - usually 1.5-2m for a city wall, about 3-4m for an outer castle wall, and up to 6m for a keep wall. Very often the stairwells were built into the 'body' of the keep walls to save space in the inner rooms - resulting in very narrow and claustrophobic stairways.
If you look at the overall plan of the castle there is a great hall outside of the keep that would have been the communal space for all those outside the lords closest aides/family. This had a huge Fireplace which would have provided heat & much of the light, candles would have most likely only been used on special occasions.
As has already been said there was no real privacy in a castle (or any family home come to that) - think open plan, communal army barracks and communal eating/social area.
Also the castle was built to maximise the natural defenses provided by the hill, by building as close to the steeper edges as possible, increasing the difficulty of assaulting those walls (and decreasing the critical defense areas). Nearly all the castles I have seen in my travels have been placed at the edges of high, steep sided hills for this very reason. This also gave the occupants commanding views over the countryside which added to the strategic advantage.
I agree that no-one would build a tower outside of the castle walls - even for a bridge! think about it, if you retreat into the castle walls, you are leaving an exterior fortification your enemies can use against you! There would sometimes be a gatehouse on the other side of the bridge, but this would be a wooden construction - easy to set fire to if captured by enemies.
Hope this is of some use