TIL most people misread the purpose of those spiral staircases in medieval castles

I keep seeing posts saying they were built clockwise so defenders could swing swords easier, but that's only half true if you look at surviving examples. In my visit to Conwy Castle last summer, I measured three stairs where the spiral went counterclockwise, which would actually favor left-handed defenders. Why does everyone ignore the evidence that these designs varied by region and builder preference?

2 comments

2 Comments

dianas501mo ago

Heard a castle historian on a podcast talk about how the whole clockwise thing is basically a myth that got repeated too much. She said a lot of the surviving spiral stairs in Scotland and France actually go the other way, which lines up with what you saw at Conwy. The whole sword arm advantage thing makes sense in theory but it only works if every builder actually followed that rule, which they clearly didn't lol. It's more about local stonecutting traditions and whatever the guy in charge felt like doing that day.

black.joel1mo ago

Wait, you actually measured them yourself with a tape measure? @dianas50 would probably get a kick out of that - most people just repeat what they heard without actually checking. That's some serious dedication to stair research.