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Friday, October 24, 2025

Why Are Medieval Castle Stairs Always Clockwise?

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There are many medieval castles still standing today. The majority of the castles are made from stone.

The earlier castles were made from wood. The construction was much weaker which meant they could not last long. Nowadays they are extremely hard to find.

Stones, on the other hand, are quite resistant and hard. That is why the beautiful medieval castles lasted long enough to be admired by the people of today.

While castles were mostly used for defense, it is pretty interesting to state that even villages started developing fortifications.

The fortifications were for defense and security because of the constant attacks and raidings.

A lot of effort and skilled architects went into building castles.

They had to be cleverly designed for the castle to withstand a huge amount of force.

It is interesting to note that all castle stairs were deliberately made clockwise.

Staircase clockwise

Designing the castle stairs to turn clockwise improved the security and safety of the castle.

Because of the unusual design of the staircases, a right-handed attacker would have a much harder time do a full swing with his sword because the right side is blocked.

The defender, on the other hand, by being on the counter side gives him the advantage of having space for a powerful right-hand swing.

This meant he could hit the opponent from the right side with a full blow.

Because the majority of soldiers are right-handed, this was a great trick to implement.

Ultimately, the clockwise staircases give more advantage to the defender whilst making it harder for an attacker to reach.

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