Motte & Bailey Castles Spotter’s Field Guide

A field guide to motte-and-bailey castles for adult history fans and castle visitors: how to recognise a motte, a bailey and a ringwork, lookalike mounds, how they were built and why they changed to stone, then 15 sites in England, Wales and Scotland with dates and sizes from the people who look after them, a timeline and every place the sources disagree.

What’s inside:

- How to use the guide (check access with each site before you go)

- Recognise it: the parts of a castle, from above and in section, and ringworks (our own drawings)

- Read the landscape: clues and lookalike mounds

- How they were built

- From timber to stone

- 15 sites in England, Wales and Scotland, with what the people who look after them say, and notes space

- Timeline

- When sources disagree: four questions with more than one answer

- Checklist of the 15 sites

- Credits, licence and sources

Pages: 17 (including cover and credits). Sizes: A4 (210 × 297 mm) and US Letter (8.5 × 11 in), both PDFs included in one zip.

Printing: Print at 100% / actual size on A4 or US Letter. Inside pages use light backgrounds and print well in black and white; covers are dark, so start from page 2 to save ink.

Every fact is checked against named source pages from English Heritage, Historic England, Cadw, Historic Environment Scotland, The National Archives, the Bayeux Museum and Encyclopaedia Britannica (checked 30 Oct 2026), and the sources are listed on the pack’s credits page. Where sources disagree, each version is shown with its source.

There are no photos in this pack: all drawings, puzzles and layouts are REALLYBYTE’s own work. Drawings are simplified impressions: not photographs or copies of real objects, buildings or maps, not to scale, and not copied from any plan, print, photo or book, or from the Bayeux Tapestry. Not affiliated with English Heritage, Historic England, Cadw, Historic Environment Scotland, The National Archives, the Bayeux Museum, Encyclopaedia Britannica or the Department for Education. Their names are used only to identify the sources we quote.

Licence: personal use. Print as many copies as you need for yourself and your household. Please don’t resell, re-upload or share it publicly. For club, school or commercial use, please email info@reallybyte.com.

Made by REALLYBYTE, the team behind motte-and-bailey.forts.im. Questions: info@reallybyte.com

This is a digital download: no physical item will be shipped.