The Keep or The Great Tower

The Great Tower Gatehouse Keep. This has been described as 'one of the most curious Norman keeps still standing,' though the combination of gatehouse and keep also occurs at Richmond, Yorkshire, and at Rougemont Castle, Exeter. The development of the great tower was complex, but four main stages can be detected:

• a late 11th Century gatehouse, the main entrance to the original castle. The round arched opening, later blocked up, and the ledge where the drawbridge rested, can be seen from the outer bailey.
• the gatehouse was raised to a four-storey tower or keep in the early 12th Century. There was a two-storey living hall on the first floor and an adjoining solar or bedroom. The hall windows were enlarged at a later date, but narrow Norman windows survive at the top of the original interior stairs and at the other side of the hall.
• in the late 12th Century, the original entrance was blocked to give greater security to the whole building and a new archway was cut through the curtain wall. The stones in the blocked entrance contrast with adjoining masonry.
• in the second half of the 15th Century the Great Tower was reduced in size and the north wall rebuilt. At the same time floors were inserted in the hall, creating new rooms lit by enlarged windows.
  

Historians still debate the details of this striking building - documents as yet undiscovered may give clues as to the real reasons for the unusual pattern of development seen in the Great Tower of Ludlow Castle.

The picture shows the entrance to the spiral staircase in the Keep.