What is the purpose of a castle's moat?

Answer 1

The purpose is to prevent invaders/enemies from having easy access to the castle. ---- The purpose of a castle's moat was that of an additional obstacle to keep out unwelcomed visitors; additional to guards, high walls, and sturdy gates.

Answer 2

Moats are usually only found on castles built for defensive purposes because they are used to protect the castle from invaders. Most of the time the bridge across the moat is a draw bridge, so if they see an enemy advancing, they can just pull up the bridge and the enemy can't get in!

Answer 3

There are many legends and myths surrounding the Moats of Medieval Castles. Perhaps the most famous is the myth that there were dragons or alligators in the Medieval Castle moats.

A moat was a deep, wide ditch surrounding a fortified Medieval town or castle as a protection against assault. Castle Moats surrounded the whole Castle complex. Castles were built near a water supply such as a river, stream, lake or spring. A dam was built to control the water supply into the moat. Some castle moats were up to 30 feet deep and usually measured at least 12 feet in width. Moats could be filled with wooden stakes or water.

The defensive purpose of filling the deep Castle Moats with water was:

To make the moats too deep to simply wade through, To make anyone attempting to swim across a highly vulnerable target and To reduce the risk of tunnelling - one of the most serious forms of attack was to undermine part of a castle. The 'miners' were called Sappers. The attackers would dig a tunnel underneath one of the corners using timber props (this process was called sapping). The tunnel would be packed with brush wood. The brush wood would be set on fire and the corner would collapse! The structure of the castle would be weakened and the weight of the castle would bring the walls caving in and the whole castle would collapse.

The vast amount of water would reduce the risk of potential fires

Answer 4

Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. This is distinct from a fortress, which was not a home, and from a fortified town, which was a public defence, though there are many similarities between these types of construction. The term has been popularly though innaccurately applied to structures as diverse as hill forts and country houses

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