Last updated Plan of Rudelsburg castle with its neck ditch (D)L-shaped neck ditch at Csobánc castle (Hungary)
A neck ditch (German: Halsgraben),[1][2] sometimes called a throat ditch,[3][4] is a dry moat that does not fully surround a castle, but only bars the side that is not protected by natural obstacles. It is often an important element in the defensive system of hill castles, especially in Germany and other parts of Central Europe.
Originally, the term neck ditch was only applied to spur castles. These were sited on hill spurs where three sides of the castle were protected by steep hillsides. Realistically they could only be attacked from the direction of the higher ground of the hill itself. The castle would therefore be separated from the rest of the hill by a dry ditch or moat which, for practical reasons, was cut across the narrowest part of the spur, the "bottleneck", hence the name. The castle was then only accessible over a bridge – usually a drawbridge.
Today the term neck bridge is also used for other types of castles, where there is a deep, dry moat on one or two sides, whilst the other sides are protected by inaccessible terrain. For example, a ditch may be cut across the neck of a spit or peninsula in the case of a lowland castle that is otherwise surrounded by water.
Many old neck ditches have since become thickly overgrown and may only be made out with some difficulty.
If other parts of a castle, such as the outer and inner wards, are separated with such moats, they are known as cross ditches (German: Abschnittsgraben).
See also
Cross dyke - a prehistoric ditch, typically found in Britain, cut across a spur for a variety of reasons and sometimes in association with a hill fort
References and footnotes
↑ Neck Ditch at codesmiths.com. Accessed on 3 Jan 2012.
↑ Neck Ditch at www.castle.lv. Accessed on 3 Jan 2012.
Horst Wolfgang Böhme, Reinhard Friedrich, Barbara Schock-Werner (ed.): Wörterbuch der Burgen, Schlösser und Festungen. Reclam, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN3-15-010547-1, p.145–146.
Friedrich-Wilhelm Krahe: Burgen des deutschen Mittelalters. Grundriss-Lexikon. Flechsig, Würzburg 2000, ISBN3-88189-360-1, p.24.
A moat is a deep, broad ditch dug around a castle, fortification, building, or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. Moats can be dry or filled with water. In some places, moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices. In older fortifications, such as hillforts, they are usually referred to simply as ditches, although the function is similar. In later periods, moats or water defences may be largely ornamental. They could also act as a sewer.
A hill castle or mountain castle is a castle built on a natural feature that stands above the surrounding terrain. It is a term derived from the German Höhenburg used in categorising castle sites by their topographical location. Hill castles are thus distinguished from lowland castles (Niederungsburgen).
Frohberg Castle is a medieval castle ruin in the Swiss municipality of Aesch in the canton of canton of Basel-Land.
The term lowland castle or plains castle describes a type of castle that is situated on a lowland, plain or valley floor, as opposed to one built on higher ground such as a hill spur. The classification is extensively used in Germany where about 34 percent of all castles are of the lowland type.
A shield wall, also shield-wall or Schildmauer, refers to the highest and strongest curtain wall, or tower of a castle that defends the only practicable line of approach to a castle built on a mountain, hill or headland. German sources may refer to a shield wall that protects two or more sides as a Hoher Mantel or Mantelmauer, which is variously translated as "mantle-wall", "mantle wall" or "high screen-wall". There is often no clear, definitive distinction between a shield wall and a mantle wall.
The ruins of Breitenstein Castle stand on a crag, 220 metres (720 ft) high, on the northern side of the Speyerbach valley in the Palatine Forest in Germany. The castles is 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) east of the village of Elmstein in the county of Bad Dürkheim in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
The Frankenburg is a natural monument with the ruins of a rock castle in the county of Südliche Weinstraße in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It lies above the Modenbach valley on a rocky outcrop of the Frankenberg called the Frankenfelsen and was built to guard the road opposite Meistersel Castle.
The ruins of Sayn Castle, the 12th century family castle of the counts of Sayn and Sayn-Wittgenstein, are in Sayn, part of the borough of Bendorf on the Rhine, between Koblenz and Neuwied in the county of Mayen-Koblenz in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Rauheneck Castle is a ruined administrative castle of the Bishopric of Würzburg in the Haßberge in the county of Haßberge, Lower Franconia, Bavaria (Germany). The site, which was badly in need of repair, was closed until 2006 due to the danger of collapse but has been accessible again since the start of, as yet unfinished, emergency repair work.
The Alte Burg is an early medieval ringwork between Altenstein and Lichtenstein in the borough of Market Maroldsweisach in the Lower Franconian county of Haßberge in the province of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany.
The ruins of the Thurant Castle stand on a wide slate hill spur above the villages of Alken on the Moselle in Germany. The castle is in the district of Mayen-Koblenz in Rhineland-Palatinate and belongs to the spur castle type. Vine gardens on the sunniest slope.
The Rauschenburg, also called Rauschenburg Castle, is the medieval ruin of a hill castle, located at around 250 metres above sea level, above the Ehrbach stream in the parish of Mermuth in the county of Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Neideck Castle is a former high mediaeval nobleman's castle above the village of Streitberg, in the municipality of Wiesenttal in the Upper Franconian county of Forchheim in the German state of Bavaria. As a result of its exposed location above the valley of the Wiesent, it has become a symbol of Franconian Switzerland.
The burgstall of the Altes Schloss is the site of an old castle near the village of Affalterthal in Bavaria, that was probably built in the High Middle Ages for the nobility. It lies within the municipality of Egloffstein in the Upper Franconian county of Forchheim.
The burgstall of Dietrichstein Castle, also called the Diederichstein Ruins, is the site of an old, probably high mediaeval, aristocratic, castle, situated high above the valley of the River Trubach in the municipality of Pretzfeld in the Upper Franconian county of Forchheim in Bavaria, Germany.
Schlüsselstein Castle was a castle and the seat of a noble family, probably dating to the High Middle Ages, the remains of which lie above the town of Ebermannstadt in the Upper Franconian county of Forchheim in the south German state of Bavaria. The site is known locally as Burgstall Schlüsselstein.
The burgstall of Schlossberg Castle, also called the Burgstall on the Flöss or the Heidenstein, is a now levelled, probably high mediaeval, nobleman's castle. It is situated above Haidhof, a village in the municipality of Gräfenberg in the Upper Franconian county of Forchheim in the south German state of Bavaria.
Bubenstein Castle, also called New Falkenstein Castle (Neu-Falkenstein), is a ruined spur castle at 560 m above sea level (NN) on a rock spur on the northern side of the Höllental valley, about 500 metres west of Old Falkenstein Castle above the village of Falkensteig in the municipality of Buchenbach in the county of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald in the southwest German state of Baden-Württemberg.
The Holter Burg is the oldest castle site in the municipality of Bissendorf near Osnabrück in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is the ruin of a hill castle. It was the third hill castle in Osnabrück Land along with the Iburg and the Wittekindsburg near Rulle.
Lichtenstein Castle is a levelled spur castle on the hill of Burgberg Lichtenstein, 315 m above sea level (NN), near the Greifenstein village of Holzhausen on the old military High Road, that ran from Frankfurt via Wetzlar to Cologne. The castle site is situated to the north of, and above, the Ulmbach Reservoir in the Hessian county of Lahn-Dill-Kreis.
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