A quadrangular castle or courtyard castle is a type of

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

characterised by ranges of buildings which are integral with the curtain walls, enclosing a central ward or quadrangle, and typically with angle

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

s. There is no

keep A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residen ...

and frequently no distinct

gatehouse A gatehouse is a type of fortified gateway, an entry control point building, enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a town, religious house, castle, manor house, or other fortification building of importance. Gatehouses are typically the most ...

. The quadrangular form predominantly dates from the mid to late fourteenth century and signals the transition from defensively to domestically oriented great houses. The four walls are also known as ranges. Quadrangular castles typically display a sophisticated and complex approach to the planning of internal social spaces. There are many quadrangular castles around the UK, for example:

Bodiam Castle Bodiam Castle () is a 14th-century moated castle near Robertsbridge in East Sussex, England. It was built in 1385 by Sir Edward Dalyngrigge, a former knight of Edward III of England, Edward III, with the permission of Richard II of England, R ...

in East Sussex, and Bolton Castle. The 27 quadrangular castles identified by John Rickard as being built in England consist roughly 10% of the castles built in the country between 1272 and 1422. No castles of this design were built in Wales. One of the earliest quadrangular castles in Germany is

Neuleiningen Neuleiningen is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a Municipalities of Germany, municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim (district), Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. ...

, of which substantial ruins remain.

List of quadrangular castles in the United Kingdom

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quadrangular Castle Fortifications by type Castles by type