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A neck ditch (), sometimes called a throat ditch,
at www.roadstoruins.com. Accessed on 3 Jan 2012. is a dry
A neck ditch (), 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 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 d ...
that does not fully surround a castle
A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...
, 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 castle
A spur castle is a type of medieval fortification that is sited on a spur (mountain), spur of a hill or mountain for defensive purposes. Ideally, it would be protected on three sides by steep hillsides; the only vulnerable side being that where t ...
s. 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 moveable b ...
.
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.
Examples of castles with neck ditches in the classical sense are Liebenstein, Rochlitz
Rochlitz (; , ) is a major district town (Große Kreisstadt) in the district of Mittelsachsen, in Saxony, Germany. Rochlitz is the head of the "municipal partnership Rochlitz" (Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Rochlitz) with its other members being the mu ...
, Kriebstein and Isenburg.
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 cross dyke or cross-dyke (also referred to as a cross-ridge dyke, covered way, linear ditch, linear earthwork or spur dyke) is a linear earthwork believed to be a prehistoric land boundary that usually measures between in length. A typical cr ...
- a prehistoric ditch, typically found in Britain, cut across a spur for a variety of reasons and sometimes in association with a hill fort
A hillfort is a type of fortification, fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late Bronze Age Europe, European Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, Iron Age. So ...
References and footnotes
Literature
* Horst Wolfgang Böhme, Reinhard Friedrich, Barbara Schock-Werner (ed.): ''Wörterbuch der Burgen, Schlösser und Festungen''. Reclam, Stuttgart 2004, , p. 145–146. * Friedrich-Wilhelm Krahe: ''Burgen des deutschen Mittelalters. Grundriss-Lexikon''. Flechsig, Würzburg 2000, , p. 24. {{Fortifications Castle architecture