Virtual Tour of Raglan Castle

The Great Gate was built, probably in the 1460, as the main entrance to the castle by Sir William Herbert, it's predecessor being his father's South Gate. The entrance passage stands between the two half-hexagonal towers. The gatehouse itself consists of an entrance passage with rooms in the towers at four levels, from the basement through the second floor, with battlements and wall-walks along the top. The windows are narrow because larger ones would have weakened the defensiveness of the gate. The circular openings beneath the ground-floor windows of the gate and the adjacent buildings are gunloops of a type common in the 15th century. The outer doorway was protected by its own machicolations running between the two towers. The approach to the Great Gate is over a two-arched bridge, and arrangement dating from the 16th century. These arches replaced the medieval drawbridge with crossed the ditch in front of the gate.

 

Below: view through the gatehouse arch to the Pitched Stone court.

 

Note the gargoyles atop the Great Gatehouse (and below).

 

Below: some of gargoyles found atop the Great Gatehouse

 

 

 

 

 

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