When motte and bailey castles were first built they were very easy to attack because they were built out of wood. The wood caught fire very easily and spread very quickly. There was not much that the people living there could do to stop it.

So people built stone castles. They were much more difficult to attack but enemies soon found ways to try to destroy these too.

Trickery

Tricking the owners of the castle or taking them by surprise was a good way of attacking but this had to be planned very carefully and was very hard work.

Battering Ram

A battering ram was used to try to break down the door. The roof was covered in animal skin to protect the soldiers using it. It was a wooden frame with wheels and had a large tree trunk hung from it. The soldiers wheeled the battering ram up to the door and then swung the tree trunk at the door as hard as they could to try to break it down.

Bows and Arrows

Soldiers had bows and arrows that they fired over the walls of the castle. This was not very accurate and was also difficult because they had to fire up towards the soldiers on the roof of the castle.

The soldiers inside the castle were hidden behind the arrow slit windows and could not be fired at. The soldiers attacking on the ground had huge wooden shield like shelters that protected them from being fired at.

Crossing the moat

Some soldiers laid piles of reeds and grass in the moat to make a bridge to walk across.

Trebuchet

A trebuchet was like a giant sling which hurled rocks and large stones at the castle walls. A heavy weight was put in one end while the other end was pulled down and loaded with stones an rocks. When the rope was released the heavy weight fell and the stones and rocks were thrown at the walls. It worked a bit like a see-saw.

Ballista

A ballista also hurled heavy rocks but was more like a giant crossbow than a see-saw.

Ladders

Some soldiers made ladders that they used to climb up the walls. This was very dangerous because the top of the ladder could be pushed away by the soldiers on the roof of the castle and then it would fall to the ground. The attacking soldiers began to build towers with wheels instead which were more difficult to knock over.

Poison

It was possible to poison the drinking water in a castle. This made all the people inside unwell and not able to fight.

Tunnels

Some groups of soldiers dug tunnels leading under the walls of the castle so that they could get straight into the castle building without being spotted.

Seige

The longest way to attack the castle would have been to stop people delivering food to the people inside. This would have taken many months but did mean that the people inside would have to come out to find food in order to stay alive.