Hoarding (castle)

A hoard or hoarding was a temporary wooden shed-like construction on the exterior of a castle during a siege that enabled the defenders to improve their field of fire along the length of a wall and, most particularly, directly downwards towards the bottom of the wall.

[1] The latter function was the purpose of the invention of machicolations, which were an improvement on hoardings, not least because masonry is fire proof.

[4] Some medieval hoardings have survived, including examples on the north tower of Stokesay Castle, England,[5] and the keep of Laval, France.

The Château Comtal of Carcassonne and the keep of Rouen Castle, both in France, have reconstructed wooden hoardings,[6] and also Castell Coch in South Wales, which was wholly rebuilt in 1875 and which has a hoarding over the drawbridge designed by the Victorian architect William Burges.

[7] Another reconstructed hoarding can be seen in Caerphilly Castle, also in South Wales, which extends along the northern curtain wall of the inner bailey.