Shell keep

<p>A shell keep is a style of <a href="/facts/Medieval/RqzEKB9v">medieval</a> <a href="/facts/Fortification/pyH0FXhH">fortification</a>, best described as a stone structure circling the top of a <a href="/facts/Motte-and-bailey/u0tCDKuf">motte</a>.
</p><p>In English <a href="/facts/Castle/1mKnEHKJ">castle</a> morphology, shell <a href="/facts/Keep/W4K2W4HM">keeps</a> are perceived as the successors to <a href="/facts/Motte-and-bailey/u0tCDKuf">motte-and-bailey</a> castles, with the wooden fence around the top of the motte replaced by a stone wall. Castle engineers during the <a href="/facts/History_of_England/4HFhfJzv">Norman</a> period did not trust the motte to support the enormous weight of a stone keep. A common solution to this problem was to replace the <a href="/facts/Palisade/gc5zlyxN">palisade</a> with a stone wall and then build wooden buildings backing onto the inside of the wall. This construction was lighter than a keep and prevented the walls from being <a href="/facts/Mining_(military)/Ns7Whr3F">undermined</a>, meaning they could be thinner and lighter.
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Shell keep open-in-new

Shell keep