Murder holes on Carmarthen Castle
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Murder holes on Carmarthen Castle by Natasha Ceridwen de Chroustchoff as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Murder holes on Carmarthen Castle
Image: © Natasha Ceridwen de Chroustchoff Taken: 27 Dec 2007
These openings between the corbels above the main gate are technically called machicolations (from the French meaning to mash or crush the neck!) They were a Norman invention that allowed the castle's defenders to drop missiles such as heavy stones, hot sand, molten lead, boiling water or pitch upon the invaders trying to gain entry below.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
51.856187
Longitude
-4.303492