Neck ditch

A neck ditch (german: Halsgraben), sometimes called a throat ditch,
at www.roadstoruins.com. Accessed on 3 Jan 2012. is a dry

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

that does not fully surround a

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

, but only bars the side that is not protected by natural obstacles. It is often an important element in the defensive system of

hill castle 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 a ...

s, 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 A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat. In some forms of English, including American English, the word ''drawbridge'' commonly refers to all types of movea ...

. Today the term neck bridge is also used for other types of castle, where there is a deep, dry moat on one or two sides, whilst the other sided 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 The term lowland castle or plains castle (german: Niederungsburg, Flachlandburg, Tieflandburg) 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 ...

that is otherwise surrounded by water. Many old neck ditches have since become thickly overgrown and may only be made out with some difficulty. Examples of castles with neck ditches in the classical sense are Liebenstein, Rochlitz,

Kriebstein Kriebstein is a municipality in the district of Mittelsachsen, in Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad ...

and Isenburg. If other parts of a castle, such as the

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