Albarrana tower

'exterior') is a defensive tower detached from the curtain wall and connected to it by a bridge or an arcade.

[1] Having been built several meters in front of the curtain wall, they were only accessible from there by a (bridged or arched) walkway containing a removable wooden section allowing the tower to be isolated from the wall if the tower were to be occupied by attacking forces.

North of the Iberian peninsula, flanking towers usually remained a structural part of the (stone) curtain wall.

Even in other Muslim-controlled territories of the medieval world this defensive feature was not used, [1] except for a notable example in the Citadel of Aleppo in Syria.

The castle now lies in ruins, but the remains of an albarrana tower called Swillington Tower are still visible just to the north of the castle's slighted curtain wall.