A post on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, claims most staircases in medieval castles were built to be extremely narrow and spiralling in a clockwise direction to make it difficult for enemy combatants to fight their way up. This claim lacks definitive evidence, but experts have raised significant concerns about its accuracy.
from a history-themed account has been viewed more than four million times. It says the clockwise spiral staircase allowed right-handed castle defenders "to use the inner wall as a partial shield and easily allow them to swing their weapon without being hindered by the curvature of the outer wall."
The post sparked debate in the replies, with some declaring the claim a "."
Rating: Lacks definitive evidence
The recent post is hardly the first reference to the claim that a medieval staircase's direction was designed with defence in mind. U.K.archeologist James Wright found one of the earliest references to the claim in 1903's "" by art critic Sir Theodore Andrea Cook, before it was repeated as widespread accepted knowledge in various books and TV shows.
"It is worth observing, however, at this stage of our inquiry, that while it was easier and more natural for a right-handed architect to draw plans for a staircase with a right-handed spiral, this 'leiotropic' formation is not invariably better; for a man ascending it and turning perpetually to the left would always have his right hand free to attack the defenders, and the garrison coming down would expose their left hands on the outside," Cook wrote.
Wright, who is publishing a book next year on medieval myths, . He says it was rare for fights to take place in staircases and when they did it would have been impractical to swing a sword in the often-confined spaces.
Wright says there are counterclockwise staircases in castles that were built during periods of "conquest and war in hotly disputed territories." He points to two of William the Conqueror’s conquest castles built in the 11th century — Norwich and the Tower of London — as examples.
found more than 85 examples of counterclockwise spiral stairs in medieval castles in England and Wales dating from the 1070s through to the 1500s.
In his 366-page , published in 2011, on the origins, role and meaning of spiral staircases in medieval stone castles, Charles Ryder from the University of Liverpool, Chester College, found roughly 70 per cent of the staircases he documented were clockwise and 30 per cent turned counterclockwise.
Ryder points to an by George Thomas Clark as having also interpreted the presence of spiral stairs in castles as a defence function.
Clark wrote, "The curves and angles in those narrow staircases facilitated the defence of them." However, Clark's book does not mention fighting in stairwells, as Cook did later in 1903.
Like Wright, Ryder's study concludes that spirals in castles had a much stronger domestic and status role rather than a military function. He says the fact that 30 per cent of the staircases turned in a counterclockwise direction also makes the myth about a clockwise direction aiding in military defence "most unlikely."
Sources
The claim can be found on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, ()
X post responding to the claim, calling it a myth, can be found ()
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"The Spiral Stair or Vice: Its Origins, Role and Meaning in Medieval Stone Castles" can be downloaded ()
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