Before we went into the actual castle, we crossed a footbridge leading into the barbican, a separate area used for defence. In medieval times instead of the footbridge that we crossed there would be a small drawbridge to delay the attacking soldiers. The barbican was there to protect the main entrance. However, if the attackers did manage to get past the first defence line and then the drawbridge, they would then have to face men firing arrows through the arrow loops,another drawbridge and other men dropping boiling substances onto the defenders through the murder holes. So really, what are the chances of an intruder entering the castle? Not very good. There were grooves in the walls of the entrance to mark where the 2 portcullis would have been, these were metal gates with spikes on the end to trap the attackers. When we entered the courtyard, to our left there was the keep, a tower where people lived. Originally there was a door a third of the way up as the entrance with a staircase, probably spiral, leading up to the ground floor. We can tell that the Keep was built earlier than the rest of the castle because it was square and had the design of that period, a zig zag pattern stretching from one side to the other. After we came out from the Keep we all went into the dungeons. It was very dark inside and quite big.