No, Medieval Staircases Weren’t Designed to Give Right-Handed Defenders an Advantage

Chances are, if you have ever visited a medieval European castle or read about such castles online, you have probably heard that newel staircases in these castles were intentionally always designed in the form of a clockwise spiral to give the most space to the right-handed defenders at the top of the stairs to draw and swing their swords while simultaneously restricting the space available to the right-handed attackers attempting to ascend the staircase.

This is something that tour guides often tell people visiting castles. It is also one of those “fun facts” that are often repeated on the internet. Unfortunately, for reasons I am about to explain, it is also almost certainly wrong; there is no compelling evidence to suggest that medieval staircases were intentionally designed this way for this reason and there is a great deal of evidence to suggest the opposite. A far more parsimonious explanation is that the majority of staircases were designed clockwise simply so that a right-handed person could keep their right hand on the wall for balance while descending the staircase under everyday circumstances.

No documentation

The first problem with the claim that spiral staircases in medieval castles were deliberately designed to give right-handed defenders an advantage is that there are no extant medieval primary sources that expressly say this. The claim is based on nothing but modern speculation.

This lack of documentation is not, of course, especially surprising on its own, since there are very few surviving medieval primary sources that discuss castle design in any kind of detail, and, on its own, it certainly does not automatically prove that medieval staircases were not designed to spiral clockwise as a defense mechanism. Nonetheless, when a claim is based solely on speculation and significant counterevidence against it exists (and, in this case, I will argue that it does), it should generally be discarded.

They don’t always go clockwise…

The second major problem with this little factoid about medieval staircases is the fact that, contrary to what tour guides and factoid-sharers on the internet keep saying, medieval staircases don’t always go clockwise. In fact, here is a study published by the Castle Studies Group that found over eighty-five examples of counter-clockwise newel staircases from castles in England and Wales dating from the 1070s to the 1500s.

The study concludes that, while counter-clockwise newel staircases are indeed relatively rare in castles built in England and Wales during the Norman Period (lasted c. 1066 – c. 1204), they are far from unheard of. For instance, Norwich Castle, built by William the Conqueror shortly after the Norman conquest, and Newark Castle, built around sixty-four to seventy-four years after the conquest, both contain counter-clockwise newel staircases. Counter-clockwise staircases become significantly more common in Edwardian English and Welsh castles from around the 1240s or thereabouts onward and remain common throughout the later periods of medieval history.

In other words, newel staircases in medieval English and Welsh castles are far from consistently clockwise and, in fact, counter-clockwise staircases are actually fairly common.

ABOVE: Photograph of a counter-clockwise newel staircase in the northeast corner buttress of Norwich Castle, dating to shortly after the Norman conquest

ABOVE: Photograph of a counter-clockwise newel staircase from the gatehouse of Newark Castle, dating to between c. 1130 and c. 1140

ABOVE: Photograph of the counter-clockwise newel staircase from the wall-walk of Clifford’s Tower from York Castle, dating to between c. 1245 and c. 1262

ABOVE: Drawing from 1906 of a counter-clockwise newel staircase dating to the late fifteenth century from the Château Blois

Could someone even realistically fight in a medieval stairway anyway?

The third problem with this claim about medieval staircase design is that, quite frankly, it would have been extremely impractical for anyone—attacking or defending—to try to fight in most newel staircases of medieval castles. Most medieval stairways are extremely precipitous and confined. The steps are all extremely tiny with very little room for a person to stand and, in most cases, simply no room for a person to swing a weapon of any significant size in either direction. Many of these stairways originally had no hand railings of any kind either.

If someone tried to stage a fight in the newel staircase of a medieval castle, then, in all likelihood, everyone involved would be struggling the whole time not to fall to their deaths. The defenders would be especially at a disadvantage in this regard, because, if one of them were to slip or make a false step, then they would fall directly toward the attackers. The attackers would, of course, be at a disadvantage as well, but they at least wouldn’t have to worry about falling toward the people they were fighting.

In other words, medieval newel staircases were clearly not intentionally designed with fighting ease in mind.

ABOVE: Photograph of the extremely steep, narrow staircase of the northwest corner buttress of the Norman keep of Goodrich Castle, constructed between c. 1148 and c. 1152. This staircase does not look like it was designed to be fought in.

The slight problem of the defenders already being toast

The fourth and final problem with the whole factoid about castle stairs always spiraling clockwise for the sake of defense is that designing a newel staircase to give right-handed defenders a minor advantage would have been, quite frankly, pretty useless.

The primary objective of castle defense was to prevent attackers from entering the castle in the first place. In medieval castles, newel staircases mainly occur connecting important sections of the keep. If the attackers had already breached the defenses, were inside the keep, and were charging their way up the stairs with all their armor and weapons, that basically meant that the outcome of the battle was already decided; the attackers had won and the defenders had lost. The castle was already taken and the defenders would have no place left to flee.

At that point, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference whether the defenders happened to have a little bit more space to draw and swing with their right arms because they were toast anyway. The best option for the defenders at that point would be to surrender and hope that the attackers deal with them mercifully.

ABOVE: Illustration from a manuscript of Froissart’s Chronicles dating to around the year 1400 depicting an assault on a medieval castle. The goal of a castle was to keep attackers out. If the attackers were in the castle and coming up the stairs, it was too late for a defense.

Why clockwise?

At this point, readers may be wondering why the majority of medieval newel staircases are clockwise if it is not for defense. Unfortunately, the medieval primary sources don’t give any explicit explanation, so it is impossible to know the answer for certain. The hypothesis that I think is most probable, however, is that it most likely has to do with everyday safety and practicality.

As I mentioned earlier, most medieval staircases are very steep with narrow steps and no handrails. I think that the most likely reason why medieval staircases are usually clockwise is because this allows a right-handed person to keep their hand on the wall for balance while going down the staircase. This is not a hypothesis that I have personally come up with, but it is one I have read and that I happen to think is most probable. It certainly seems far more plausible than the explanation about people fighting on staircases.

Whatever the case may be, the claim about staircases being clockwise for defense purposes belongs in the same category as other architectural misconceptions, such as that one about vomitoria being places for vomiting.

ABOVE: Photograph of the primary vaulted clockwise newel staircase from the White Tower of the Tower of London

Author: Spencer McDaniel

Hello! I am an aspiring historian mainly interested in ancient Greek cultural and social history. Some of my main historical interests include ancient religion, mythology, and folklore; gender and sexuality; ethnicity; and interactions between Greek cultures and cultures they viewed as foreign. I graduated with high distinction from Indiana University Bloomington in May 2022 with a BA in history and classical studies (Ancient Greek and Latin languages), with departmental honors in history. I am currently a student in the MA program in Ancient Greek and Roman Studies at Brandeis University.

3 thoughts on “No, Medieval Staircases Weren’t Designed to Give Right-Handed Defenders an Advantage”

  1. Well done Spencer!
    I’m English (left-handed) and familiar with ‘spiral'(actually helical) staircases both clockwise and otherwise. Like you I saw the same old claims about defensive capability being restated ad nauseam without any evidence. And like you it occurred to me that having got as far as the internal stairs the battle was already lost for the defenders. Maybe it’s influenced by the castle BUILDERS being left or right handed.
    Keep up the good work.
    G Martin
    Gloucestershire

  2. Your first point about the lack of documentation makes sense. Your theory concerning the relative advantages and dis-advantages of defense and offense on a spiral staircase being an indication that there was no defensive intention in the clockwise spiral of the structure is flawed on the face of it. You are arguing an irrelevant point. Fights take place where they occur organically. Despite who has the advantage overall, the designer would still construct the stair case with as much advantage to the defender as possible. I’m not saying this proves they were built that way for that reason, I’m just pointing out the flaw in your argument.

  3. Your point about documentation neither confirms or denies your conclusion that you’ve thoroughly debunked the “factoid about medieval staircases”. Looking at a medieval staircase to determine how it was defended (or would have been defended) using “modern sensibilities” is flawed. Your statement – “Obviously, trying to fight on a steep, narrow staircase would not have been especially convenient for the attackers coming up the stairs, but it would have actually been even more inconvenient for the defenders higher up the stairs.” is wrong. If you are wearing full armor and either defending (or attacking) from above, a clockwise staircase gives the tactical advantage to the person on the upper stair. (Just as a man on a horse has a tactical advantage over the man on the ground.) In fact, your arguments on why a defender in a steep staircase is at a disadvantage are flawed. If you knew more about the development of armor, the use of the full-length kite-shaped shield (versus a heater-type shield,) and fighting techniques of the period that included not only the sword, axe and mace, but also the use of polearms and spears, you understand why fighting in a clockwise stairway is an advantage up until the mid twelve century – which in accordance with your article (and research) you start seeing stairways being constructed that are also counterclockwise. You might have asked yourself “Why that was?” If you’d studied history looking for cause and effect (NOTE: The building of castles were a reflection of the changes in warfare and fighting techniques of the time period and cultures in those areas), you would have determined that there were major changes taking place in armor, shield and siege warfare. Those changes would have influenced the building techniques and features of the castle built in those time periods.

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