Last week I took a family trip to the Western Lake District and visited Muncaster castle, a historic castle with a history of extension and restoration. It’s difficult to pin a date on the castle’s history as it’s thought the Roman foundations would date back as far as 79AD. But according to the history the castle and lands were granted to Alan de Penitone in 1208 and fifty years later a castle was built by Gamel de Mulcastre. As with all family days out where there’s some unique architecture I’m drawn towards taking a look at the variety of doors. Muncaster castle was no exception and I was pleasantly surprised by the diversity in style of both the castle and it’s doors.
As would be expected, the main front door to the castle is a grand size, surrounded by a gothic stone arch. I would estimate around 1.5 meters wide and at the peak of the arch around 3 meters. I could only take a guess at the timber type being oak, but the door is built with a rustic planked style with heavy black cast tee style hinges and stud work, adding to its authenticity. I love this type of hardware style, especially with the black studs which used to be a sign of wealth in the 1600’s. Historically door studs held iron plates onto the face of the door to protect against arrows and the like, from an attacking army.
But my guess would be that today’s weapons wouldn’t be fazed by such armour. Many of the other doors are in similar styles with smaller dimensions and less hefty hardware, but some of the door styles came as a surprise. One in particular door with 18 glazed panels drew my attention. The door didn’t look out of place, but it’s not a style that I would have thought would suit a castle and certainly wouldn’t offer much protection from attackers.
At Doorsan we supply a large range of doors and traditional rustic hardware. We’ve never had to supply a castle door, but if it’s a truly custom option then the sales team will be more than happy to take a look at your enquiry and decide if it’s something that can be manufactured. Similarly we have a broad range of hardware suppliers, not all hardware options are listed on our site, but if it’s something specific then ask the sales team who can usually attempt to source most door hardware.
