The Myth of the Spiral Stair…

Here we are once again, looking at another example of Middle Age misconceptions! Today is one that is particularly relevant to our own castle: the reason behind spiral staircases.

The Myth

A great many castles are constructed with a spiral staircase, usually in a clockwise fashion and often very narrow. A popular idea as to why is for the purposes of defence. If enemy combatants breach the castle and attempt to battle the defenders on the stairs, they would find fighting awkward. Since their weapons would be used in their right hands, they would collide with the central pillar of the spiral stairs while the defenders would have the advantage of the high ground (insert Star Wars prequel meme here). There is even the thought that stairs were designed to be intentionally uneven in places to further make things difficult for attackers.

So would it be difficult to fight on spiral stairs? Yes. Is this the main reason they were built? Arguably, no and here’s why.

Architectural Practicality

The first thing to be highlighted is the rotational direction of spiral stairs. The theory is predicated on the idea they were all built clockwise (CW) to incorporate the difficulty of fighting on them. However, this is definitely not the case. Neil Guy has written prominently on the subject of anticlockwise (ACW) spiral stairs in castles and highlights some examples: Goodrich Castle, with an ACW staircase going up to the northern buttress; Kenilworth Castle with an ACW staircase in its south-west tower; the great tower of Norwich Castle has two ACW staircases and the White Tower in the Tower of London has both CW and ACW staircases. The mere existence of these staircases already pokes a few holes in the idea of using them for defence.

Fighting on the stairs

In regards to fighting on the staircases themselves, there is another factor to consider and that’s how difficult it would actually be to fight on them for both parties. Take the illustration to the left as an example.

While there’s no question that things are awkward for the man on the lower stair, there’s enough to suggest it would be just as awkward for the helmeted knight above. Whilst the lower man has to worry about the pillar to his right, the higher man has to contend with the wall that’s on his right as well. A wall which curves around and may catch his axe on the backswing or swinging in front. Guy notes this as well, along with another important fact: castles are meant for defence and to keep unwanted people out. If the fighting has progressed to the point where the enemy is on the stairs, inside the castle, the defenders have all but lost.

Guy does posit a few ideas as to why staircases were made in a spiral fashion. The first of these is simple geometrics to consider in construction: a circle takes up less space and is easier to fit than a square. Cylinder stairs could be compressed while expenses and resources could be diverted to increasing the thickness of the walls. This would be vital for any castle, since the main idea is to keep attackers from getting in.

In cases where both ACW and CW stairs are in the same tower, he proposes the idea of a one-way system. Spiral staircases are not only narrow in construction, but the width of the stairs get smaller the closer to the centre you go. This would make passing on them difficult, thus necessitating a potential need for a set going up and another going down. As for castles that only have CW stairs, such as Norwich Castle or even our own castle, he notes that it’s easier to ascend with a right-handed CW set of stairs. It’s closest to the light source on the wider side of the castle and leaves a carrying hand free whilst climbing. It’s not likely defence was considered, aside from the initial construction of making the walls thicker.

Another thing Guy considers is the presence of nobility in the castle, or else people of importance. As any Gothic horror fan knows, you can’t see the top of a spiral staircase when approaching from the bottom or vice versa. When approaching a private place from the high end of a castle’s hall, diagonally opposite stairs would afford anyone in the upper rooms a measure of privacy. Stairs didn’t always have access to places when privacy was needed.

But what about the uneven stairs themselves? Is there a reason for that? Well, the best guess that can be made is that the unevenness was probably not intentional to their original design. Some of these buildings are literally hundreds of years old and have been used both by the people of their time and contemporary visitors, possibly even visitors within the last two centuries. It’s not farfetched to consider that a combination of erosion and time is a major contributing factor to their current state.

Potential Origin

The spiral stairs in the Castle Keep

Another thing that should be noted is that there is, at least for now, no primary source evidence which states a defensive reason for the construction of spiral staircases. This doesn’t mean it’s automatically wrong, of course. Sometimes, history is very much educated guesswork and historians have to draw their own conclusions from what the evidence suggests. However, there certainly seems to be enough to challenge this initial idea. So where is it likely to have come from?

James Wright, who also addresses this myth in his own writing, has one suggestion, in the form of Sir Theodore Andrea Cook (1867-1930). Sir Cook was something of an enthusiast in three areas: art criticism, architecture and fencing. Wright notes that the earliest reference to the myth we know likely came from his book: ‘Spirals in Nature and Art’ in 1902. As noted, Cook himself was a keen fencer and arrived at the conclusion that even if castle architects would have found ACW stairs easier to use, they instead built them CW in order to facilitate a better defence against right-handed attackers. Wright notes how, with his interests, he was in a ‘unique position to make the connection’ and how Cook’s theory was referenced in the bibliography of Guy Cadogan Rothery in 1912, before gradually being absorbed into popular writings about castles.

While it should be noted that this may not necessarily be the definitive answer to the origin, it certainly offers a good one. We can speak from experience of the kind of impact 19th century thinking had on medieval buildings. Various entrance ways carved into our own castle, along with the four turrets on our roof, certainly point to that. It’s easy to see why the myth has circulated. It appears to highlight a great deal of forethought by the architects and offers a very thrilling image of fierce combat taking place within castles. But the truth is far simpler and somewhat less exciting, though still quite interesting. Certainly one thing you can say about our spiral staircase is this: don’t try going from the very bottom to the very top, unless you want a very trying workout.

Myth? Busted!

Links to referenced articles can be found below:

The Rise of the Anti-clockwise Newel Stair, Neil Guy, http://www.castlestudiesgroup.org.uk/CSGJournal2011-12X5stairs.pdf

Mediaeval Mythbusting Blog #3: The Man Who Invented the Spiral Staircase Myth, James Wright, https://triskeleheritage.triskelepublishing.com/mediaeval-mythbusting-blog-2-the-man-who-invented-the-spiral-staircase-myth/