Thanks for visiting my channel and watching this tutorial! Did you find this tutorial easy to follow? Will you build this Norman Castle Keep in your world?
I love that this isn't just a castle tutorial, but also breaking down history and where concessions are made due to Minecraft's limitations. It's actually an ingenious formula for making sure people watch through the entire video rather than just skipping around!
As someone who loves building castles, this aspect is incredibly important in making a build look good, being knowledgeable on the functionality and history as well the limits of your detailing and the blocks given to you will make your build look so much more natural than without this knowledge.
@@TheJackhammer3135 This video did indeed make me come back to Minecraft, I think you should too, building this keep is as fun as (or funner than) it looks like!
Yes, especially during/after the Norman Conquest in the Early Middle Ages. Castles started getting bigger as the era wore on, but mainly as a show of wealth. Arudel is a perfect example, and I'd love to build something inspired by Arundel and also show that on this channel, somehow.
This is not a castle … this is a keep. The keep was the most fortified part of the castle where the lord and his retinue would retreat if besieged. The castle itself includes the fortified wards around the keep which were protected by a fortified outer wall and gatehouse I.e. the castle wall. Within the castle wall, there would usually be separate lodgings from the keep where the lord, his family, and guests, would ordinarily stay when the castle was not besieged. Source: I am English and have visited many Norman and other castles.
20:25 Machicolations are not murder holes. They are similar, but murder holes are the holes in the ceilings typically in entrance ways. While Machicolations are the holes between corbels like you said. The dispensers are much more accurate to what murder holes are used for. So they actually are accurate in functionality. :) The castle looks really good. :)
Thank you for watching! Not sure where my research went wrong but I appreciate it being pointed out and I’ll work harder not to make these errors. Major life goal is to see these castles myself in England and France!
I'm a historically accurate castle lover so seeing you explaining how they did actual castles, how they were and specially how to "correctly" build a medieval castle, made me so happy
This. I like his toilet designs, but historically they would be built off the main structure and the hole would just empty outside the walls. If the castle featured a moat it would turn the moat toxic, discouraging any who dare to swim across @@mikkelnyhuus9173
Fun fact: the word "Norman" comes from "North men" AKA Norsemen. The Normans were originally Viking raiders who the King of the Franks sought to placate by ceding them some land across the channel from England in exchange for them not invading the rest of France. Given their Viking heritage, lots of hearths sounds on par :3
@@dplocksmith91 they didn't only go to England, many of them also came to southern Italy, where they kicked out the last Byzantines in Italy and also the Arabs. Nor they did stop there. There even were some in Anatolia. The Normen truly went everywhere in Europe.
@@lorenzoromito7735 Roussel de Bailleul! he ruled over the area around modern-day Ankara for a couple years in the 1070s :D one of my favourite guys in history.
@@dplocksmith91 I had almost this exact paragraph in an earlier draft of the script, but, gotta stick to the subject and keep the time down. “Great minds think alike!” 😁
Love how the inside is thick with stuff, and how it's actually compatible with Minecraft people and their lives. I've seen many super impressive builds that are blown up 2x+ to compensate for Minecraft's "low resolution", making them look like they were built for giants when you stop the creative flight and have a look around
@@DaniSC_l1 eh idk about that, it took about a whole double chest worth of cobble and probably a few stacks of coal to make in my survival world. Granted I did make mine a little bigger, instead of having 9 blocks between all of the corner towers I made the front and back walls 11 blocks instead so that there’d be a 3 block gap between the chairs in the entrance hall, I turned the top floor into two separate rooms with a dividing wall right down the middle, and I made the mound another block higher, but those are fairly minor additions that didn’t increase the material cost by too much. Also, it should be noted that the keep is just one part of a castle, the next thing I built was the outer walls and that took *multiple* double chests worth of cobble.
@@Slender_Man_186 I built a 1:1 recreation in a server I'm in and it took me about 4 days on and off to build. Maybe three double chests of material, mostly for andesite and cobble and wood (though I will have to replace most of it with spruce when we find some). The server is still mostly early-mid game, we are all iron focused and we have a few farms but it is a really viable build. I never died building this compared to a different player who was building a Pagoda by Stevlr who died many many many times. Helpful tip though is you should start a redstone kelp farm and have maybe 8 or 16 campfires ready to dry them. 8 does half a stack and 16 does full. One block of dried kelp is much more efficient for this kind of build than wood (which is needed for furniture) or coal. It's just very useful as a fuel and doesn't use up pickaxe durability. We set ours up early so we could save on wood for our builds and village wall.
As a lifelong castle-appreciator I absolutely love the build. For walls that won't interact with other blocks, I tend to use stone brick fences. They look slimmer, give more visual space and still look the part. It does get a bit finnicky when placing doors or - heavens forbid - trying to mix blocks, but it can make a build feel less '1 x 1 meter everything' in certain sections of corridor.
I really love the way you do these tutorials. No overly complicated or arbitrary designs, no super rare materials from the bottom of the ocean, the fact that you explain the design process and the logic behind it is so helpful for applying these ideas in other areas. Can't wait for the next one!
Been playing Minecraft for years, but finally the bug has hit me 15 years later to really build something, and this has been a great template to start with, easily explained, and thanks so much for the video!
I'm really glad to see these every time, since I love building historical (but especially _practical)_ castles in Minecraft too. Some notes from my own experience: - I like to put trap doors over my arrow slits. Arrow slits are easier to shoot through in Minecraft than in real life, so being able to close them and make the area you're in completely safe is very practical, especially since it means you can heal. - The crenelations in real life weren't always person-high, but they often were, and I'd recommend making them two blocks high so that they may provide full cover. - The walls between crenelations are a very smart way to fit machicolations _and_ waist-high wall in one block, and are very aesthetically pleasing because of that... were it not for the fact the wall block has a 1.5 block tall hitbox, which makes shooting over it very difficult. Honestly, I'm not sure how to fix this, since none of the solutions I've tried are ideal: 1) You could you an upside down stair between the crenelations plus a regular stair under where you stand to shoot between the crenelations in order to create machicolations, but then you'd have a full block (the upside-down stair) to shoot over. 2) You could have the crenelations be two blocks out from the supporting wall instead of one, with the machicolations being _between_ the crenelations instead of at their base, with the wall between the crenelations being stairs that are easier to shoot over, but then you'd have full-block holes as machicolations, which players could fall through. or else you could fill the machicolations with blocks like iron bars, to prevent that, but that wouldn't look quite as good. 3) You could replace the wall block between the crenelations with iron bars, which solves the problem of not being able to shoot over them, but that would nix the classic crenelation look. We really need vertical half-slabs to solve this, but unfortunately we don't have them.
Maybe you could replace the stone brick wall blocks with upper trapdoors with hinges on your side, when “open” the trapdoor hitbox is thinner and might maybe give some protection, and you can “close” them to shoot arrows downwards
@@flakeperson And unfortunately angled in such a way that it becomes impossible to shoot at the base of the wall if the wall is of any notable height. Which is the whole point of machicolations. Granted, in the course of trying this out in order to make sure I wasn't speaking nonsense I also noticed this is equally true if the block between the crenellations is an upside-down stair facing you, so my solution 1) is disqualified too, unfortunately.
Here I am, watching a video on historical buildings in Minecraft instead of studying for my uni exams, and I must say, I’m fine with that. I’m not a good builder but this video inspired me to build something from history; thanks to you, I’ll start to embrace my creative side once again. Adding history to these videos makes me want to see more of them, I hope you will continue to upload more tutorials with historical references and explanations, it adds a lot of flavour to Minecraft
I love that this build is as historically accurate as possible. So many Minecraft builds are too large and fantastical, but this… historically accurate, reasonable size to build yourself in survival, truly amazing.
As someone who typically plays modpacks with tons of decoration mods, It always amazes me how much people like you can do with the vanilla blocks. It's really inspiring, and makes me want to get better at my own builds.
About the spiral staircase, it should start from the left so that anyone walking up would have his right arm (sword arm) trapped against the post, while anyone walking down would have his sword arm free. This made it easier for people in higher levels to defend against invaders trying to climb up the stairs.
@@swagnilla_ice what video did shad prove this wrong in? Because this has always been my understanding as well. And in Minecraft it is a correct assumption. Turning a corner to your left lets you peak mobs before they can peak you.
@@jakehouston7721 This is just a myth that has never been proven. Just imagine youre fighting on a staircase on the top. Youre the one exposing their lower body to the enemy, while your armor and shield are mostly out of reach. Plus the stairs obstruct your path when youre backing up. Its safe to assume that medieval warfare did not take place on staircases very often, no matter the direction.
@@papageitaucher618 Yep. except exposing your leg is a problem if the stair go right or left, but having an advantage is only the case if the stair start left. Doesn't mean the defendant want that. But if it happens at least they have all the advantage they can
Absolutely love your methodology of building. Weight, material diversity, structural integrity, utility, rule of cool. I do the same; your build in this video is inspiring.
I LOVE your realism, history, functionality, aesthetic, and advice in your builds. I REALLY hope you keep making cool Minecraft videos, and I appreciate your work m8
I looooove how you mixed historical information and in-game practicality while showing us how you built this castle! It's really entertaining while being so helpful as well.
I do the same thing with my castles, although I try to make it look fancy too :D also I am trying to make more with white blocks to look like a whitewash of the stone/wood, because REAL LIFE!
I clicked this video as just a reference, visually, for parts of a castle I plan to build, as well as to just have something playing on a second monitor. But man, this was so good that I stopped playing my own game and just watched this, over half an hour of great entertainment. Your presentation style is great and I respect the commitment to historical accuracy. Overall design was great, of course, but what stood out the most was seeing how much attention was given to minor details like arrow slit positions or doorknob position. You've got a new fan. I wish you only good luck in growing your channel.
This is the first time I've seen a castle tutorial that makes sense and explains it so you not only can make the one in the video, but you can also customize it, too.
I love this because it's not only showing how to build a castle, but a schemat pattern to build a castle the way you want. Now I know how to build castle that looks pretty decent and make it in different variations. This video with others that you've made will definitetly help me build custom castle that won't look that bad. thx
Been building castles in Minecraft for a long time but this one is definitely the best video I’ve seen in a while. Not only does he explain all the details, there’s also a touch of historical context to make the castle more realistic than just a hollow shell of no use. Thank you so much for this, I’ll definitely build it in my survival world, also look forward to seeing more castle building videos with historic references from you! 🎉
Describing history, easy to follow guide, captions for those who are hard of hearing... This is a great video. You clearly dedicate a lot of effort to having your videos be "perfect". Leaving this comment and a like as a form of engagement, hoping fellow Minecrafters can learn a thing or two from your content (and ofcourse, to motivate you ;) )
I just wanted to say, i have zero interest in building this and havent watched a building tutorial in 10+ years. Idk why but i greatly enjoyed watching this, amazing job. You're clearly onto something
Please keep at this kinda of content for ages I have scoured the internet looking for Minecraft tutorials on how to build historically accurate castles the best I could find was the guy who rebuilt Corfe Castle so this is a godsend thank you
Me and my friend are starting a main Minecraft world again and we decided to go for a medieval look for our main base with all sorts of buildings castles towers etc and we have never tried this before. Randomly i found your medieval building tutorials and i love them so much it has given me a lot of inspiration. I would love to see more of this content that would be amazing 🙏
Just some tips castle walls would be ticker then you’ve built them, for structural and defensive stability. The stairs going up to the entrance would’ve been more accurate if made out of wood, to be either pushed over or burned in case of attack to stop attackers easily reaching the gate. The inside of castles wouldn’t of been dull and grey stone, medieval people loved colour it would’ve been whitewashed and painted over with murals and colourful images, the inside would be full of colour maby just left whitewashed or hung with tapestry’s along the wall with depictions on them. Machicolations are also not murder holes. And a room with a stone roof such as the entrance and the basement would have to have a vaulted calling to support the stones weight, not just arches.
I like how he called machiculations murder holes, but then added real murder holes at 22:57 haha. May not be historical for that castle type, but it _is_ historical!
Love this build. Inspired me to create something similar. It is simple enough, yet beautiful and functional and as you said navigatable. Thanks for the effort you out in and pointing out where it is historically accurate and where not. Looking forward to future videos and will check your current ones!
my favourite parts in these videos is the historical facts you add. That for me, is the most helpful. As a relatively experienced castle builder, the building i already know most of the minecraft tips
Ah, we've built a Norman castle, but I'd like to build a MORMON castle! Will it have delicious casseroles in every room? Will Trey Parker film movies in it?
This tutorial is phenomenal! Not only is it easy to follow along for anyone interested in this building style but it's also very educational and informative on tactical reasons for the slightest details on things as simple as which direction to have a door open up. No brainer easy subscription. A+!
If you are a bedrock player and Cant figure out how to place beds ontop of eachother because nobody cares about how we have to deal with things, you start with the top bed and then the bottom bed. By building with blocks then destroying them. Have fun!
This was an absolutely fantastic build and castle. I've made one myself in a modded server with some friends and it's the talk of the town! Love the historical accuracy and the functionality! Great tutorial, great voice, and great channel! Can't wait to see more builds from you!
I literally just finished building this. It wasn't easy, but damn it was fun! Especially putting my own twist on a few areas, finding alternatives in the ATM9 pack I'm playing in, it's all so wonderful! Thank you so much, both for the tutorial and the small history lesson. I never would have thought that they didn't have chimneys back then... It was literally something I learned from this video, I thought it was an ancient thing!
My girlfriend and I were writing a story together about royalty - lots of character-driven pain and political nonsense inspired by both history and fiction - and I had started building the main castle in a modded Minecraft world. I only JUST found your previous two videos and was using them for inspiration on the build - and then THIS came out too! You have perfect timing; I'm sure my build will be so much better for it; thank you!
You're impressively good at texturing builds. A lot of people do it just cause they know they should, and it ends up just being distracting, but the walls on this build look so natural
I made a a slightly different version of this with polished deepslate as the main material. The black color gives it a more menacing presence. I also built it on the top of a mountain overhanging a cliff face for even more presence. I love it and it has served me well. Thanks for the idea ❤
Seeing this castle reminds me of the castle used for the West and Central Europe civilizations in Age of Empires 2 and I LOVE IT. I am now tempted to do my own spin on this since I play modded Minecraft which adds a lot of furniture and decor...
I've just discovered your channel and I must say that I am addicted to your explanations! I really appreciate the fact you back up every element that is placed with logic as to why it should be there, it makes the learning process more intuitive and entertaining. Hats off to you!
MAN I just got to the point where you build proper battlements with machicolation, so good! I've been trying to figure out a way to build those very compact but somehow never thought of your method.
Love this build! It's big enough to work on its own, but small enough to be manageable. Very well done. And I appreciate when you differentiate between what is and isn't historically accurate in the build; it lends you a great deal of credibility. A quick note on glass: there is evidence in some Old Norse (so Early Medieval) great halls for glass from as far afield as Egypt or Constantinople. Obviously it wasn't very much glass, but it was impressive at the time. The glass was green and showed traced of natron, which is pretty cool! I think you were right to eschew the glass in a standalone keep, but I could definitely see some storytelling potential in a keep that starts out without any glass, and then as the castle gets further built up around it, the lord and his family buy some Alexandrian or Byzantine (or, for glass closer to home, Venetian) glass to put in their windows and show off their wealth!
I really enjoyed following this build! I hope you make more Medieval and Middle Ages builds soon. Just some advice: a simple minimap showing where you are and which direction you're looking at would really help to understand where exactly you're building, especially when it comes to symmetrical builds such as this one where it's hard to make out where you're building sometimes. Even just specifying the location when talking (e.g. back left, front right) would be more than enough!
Great advice, thanks! If you know of a mod that shows a scalable minimap please let me know. Another idea I had that I didn’t do this time was to record everything with Replay Mod and any time I’m building in 1st person, show a 3rd person angle small, overlayed, in the upper right corner. Think that might’ve helped?
I realize now, how simply thought and built a castle can be built in minecraft without it being too big for my own skill or patience. I always had issues with builds getting too ambitious and running away from my own time and energy. I love it. This changes everything for me
I have to appreciate your builds even as an experienced builder. As you make explaining this look so easy. Plus with the basics explained like here, it'd be up to the viewer then to add or substract things they like/didn't like and expand their builds from there. Would definitely share your vids to people, who've asked me to teach them my methods over the years.
@@dudieboy Didn't expect a response after the video has been on for a month. cool! Would be interesting to see you applying your ideas perhaps on a larger scale. The equivalent of a small village/town perhaps. Perhaps could still learn a thing or two from someone who isn't an old dog like myself. (since i've been building stuff in creative since 1.5.1)
Please, make these historically informed tutorials into a series! They are so well made and so addicting! Maybe you could even deviate from the Early Middle Ages and build in other styles (Gothic as in the Late Middle Ages, Roman Classical as in the Roman Empire Era, etc...)!
Thanks! They sorta are a series at this point. I've created this playlist and added it to my channel page: ruclips.net/p/PLg1i7MTLl7UelgekgLg9hvgBEUWrfwnea
this gives me an idea for a fun minigame, you give all the players like mining fatigue and limit the inventory slots very much and they have to plan the invasion with all that in mind
Its funny that I was trying to make a Norman style building in minecraft, but couldn't do it. Then there were no tutorials, but then months later I stumble on this video.
Love this video! I like building castles in Minecraft, and this hits both my personal favorite traits of being both functional and stylistic. It looks great! Personally if I try to make something like this next time I play Minecraft, I might bump up the scale a wee bit, maybe just by two extra blocks along each side to add a bit more elbow room. Also, maybe turn that empty space beneath the entrance hall into a dungeon/torture chamber or some kind of secret alchemy lab.
I think I needed this video. Not only because it’s entertaining, but also because I sometimes overcommit to castle builds and need to remember to return to basics.
This is such a beautiful guide, not only do you show how to make stuff look beautiful and take advantage of minecrafts limited but also cozy vibe, you present a clear respect to the source material being represented rather than grey box made of stone with shooting points. Reminds me of when I'd watch Shadowversity's sketch up videos of his custom castle designs.
I want to stress that this being an "easy" design does not mean it's worse or a lower quality than any other castle. In fact I find a lot of castle builds tend to be too busy and needlessly decorated in ways that hinder the design rather than help it. Sometimes simple and clean is simply the best, and a castle like this is simple and clean.
As someone who loves medieval history, historical accuracy, and architecture, this video was amazing. I wish there were more tutorials like this that delved into the actual historical information of a build and try to stay as close to realistic as possible. You definitely got a like and a comment from me! I’m also adding this to a couple playlists so I never lose it. Thank you, and well done!
Don't usually leave many comments, but just wanted to say this video was cool as hell. Love to see historical facts weaved into neat building ideas. Super fine fantastic work, man.
Fantastic build, concessions, reasoning, presentation. Just fantastic mate, your love for the topic is on full display too! Hope you get to come tour some of our old castles IRL someday!
Thanks for visiting my channel and watching this tutorial! Did you find this tutorial easy to follow? Will you build this Norman Castle Keep in your world?
Yes I be adding it to my Xbox world
Yes! This tutorial was very good and informative.
i for sure am adding the world to my horror modpack thanks for the build bro :)
Yes, thank you! The instructions were clear and it was entertaining to watch :)
Thanks! This video ist great. My son just startet to biuld a medieval castle and I think we will adopt this.
I love that this isn't just a castle tutorial, but also breaking down history and where concessions are made due to Minecraft's limitations. It's actually an ingenious formula for making sure people watch through the entire video rather than just skipping around!
Thanks!
I second this comment. I haven’t touched Minecraft in years, but this build makes me want to go back into it.
Kind of reminds me of Madnes64.
Man, I miss that guy.
As someone who loves building castles, this aspect is incredibly important in making a build look good, being knowledgeable on the functionality and history as well the limits of your detailing and the blocks given to you will make your build look so much more natural than without this knowledge.
@@TheJackhammer3135 This video did indeed make me come back to Minecraft, I think you should too, building this keep is as fun as (or funner than) it looks like!
Really shows how much smaller the average castle was compared to what people might think.
Yes, especially during/after the Norman Conquest in the Early Middle Ages. Castles started getting bigger as the era wore on, but mainly as a show of wealth. Arudel is a perfect example, and I'd love to build something inspired by Arundel and also show that on this channel, somehow.
This is not a castle … this is a keep. The keep was the most fortified part of the castle where the lord and his retinue would retreat if besieged. The castle itself includes the fortified wards around the keep which were protected by a fortified outer wall and gatehouse I.e. the castle wall. Within the castle wall, there would usually be separate lodgings from the keep where the lord, his family, and guests, would ordinarily stay when the castle was not besieged.
Source: I am English and have visited many Norman and other castles.
@@mw89181 Many small castles included ONLY the keep.
20:25 Machicolations are not murder holes. They are similar, but murder holes are the holes in the ceilings typically in entrance ways. While Machicolations are the holes between corbels like you said.
The dispensers are much more accurate to what murder holes are used for. So they actually are accurate in functionality. :)
The castle looks really good. :)
Thank you for watching! Not sure where my research went wrong but I appreciate it being pointed out and I’ll work harder not to make these errors. Major life goal is to see these castles myself in England and France!
@@dudieboyOr just go see some interesting looking castles. Like those in France, just not the Norman ones.
@@Halo_Legend Some of the French Keeps are just large towers or donjons 👍🙃
@@dudieboy for info on castles in general and especially machicolations I highly recommend shadiveristy. great build fam
@@Halo_Legend William the Conquerer has entered the chat
I'm a historically accurate castle lover so seeing you explaining how they did actual castles, how they were and specially how to "correctly" build a medieval castle, made me so happy
Awesome!
Then I hope you noticed the mistakes too, like the toilet for example.
This. I like his toilet designs, but historically they would be built off the main structure and the hole would just empty outside the walls. If the castle featured a moat it would turn the moat toxic, discouraging any who dare to swim across @@mikkelnyhuus9173
@mikkelnyhuus9173 or the walls not being 10-20ft thick. That would be about 3-6 blocks.
@@alfacinha9609 Concessions of playing in Minecraft folks, concessions…
well if there's anything I've learned about ancient Normans, it's that they sure loved their blazing hearths
Hahaha! What? Five hearths in a castle too many? 😁
Fun fact: the word "Norman" comes from "North men" AKA Norsemen. The Normans were originally Viking raiders who the King of the Franks sought to placate by ceding them some land across the channel from England in exchange for them not invading the rest of France. Given their Viking heritage, lots of hearths sounds on par :3
@@dplocksmith91 they didn't only go to England, many of them also came to southern Italy, where they kicked out the last Byzantines in Italy and also the Arabs.
Nor they did stop there. There even were some in Anatolia. The Normen truly went everywhere in Europe.
@@lorenzoromito7735 Roussel de Bailleul! he ruled over the area around modern-day Ankara for a couple years in the 1070s :D one of my favourite guys in history.
@@dplocksmith91 I had almost this exact paragraph in an earlier draft of the script, but, gotta stick to the subject and keep the time down. “Great minds think alike!” 😁
Love how the inside is thick with stuff, and how it's actually compatible with Minecraft people and their lives.
I've seen many super impressive builds that are blown up 2x+ to compensate for Minecraft's "low resolution", making them look like they were built for giants when you stop the creative flight and have a look around
exactly, this one is actually doable to make in survival in early stages
@@DaniSC_l1 eh idk about that, it took about a whole double chest worth of cobble and probably a few stacks of coal to make in my survival world. Granted I did make mine a little bigger, instead of having 9 blocks between all of the corner towers I made the front and back walls 11 blocks instead so that there’d be a 3 block gap between the chairs in the entrance hall, I turned the top floor into two separate rooms with a dividing wall right down the middle, and I made the mound another block higher, but those are fairly minor additions that didn’t increase the material cost by too much. Also, it should be noted that the keep is just one part of a castle, the next thing I built was the outer walls and that took *multiple* double chests worth of cobble.
@@Slender_Man_186 yeah I literally just made it in my survival world and I didnt thought it would need so much stone lol
@@Slender_Man_186 I built a 1:1 recreation in a server I'm in and it took me about 4 days on and off to build. Maybe three double chests of material, mostly for andesite and cobble and wood (though I will have to replace most of it with spruce when we find some).
The server is still mostly early-mid game, we are all iron focused and we have a few farms but it is a really viable build. I never died building this compared to a different player who was building a Pagoda by Stevlr who died many many many times.
Helpful tip though is you should start a redstone kelp farm and have maybe 8 or 16 campfires ready to dry them. 8 does half a stack and 16 does full. One block of dried kelp is much more efficient for this kind of build than wood (which is needed for furniture) or coal. It's just very useful as a fuel and doesn't use up pickaxe durability. We set ours up early so we could save on wood for our builds and village wall.
@@DaniSC_l1 dude this castle almost consumed 3 diamond pickaxes from me
As a lifelong castle-appreciator I absolutely love the build.
For walls that won't interact with other blocks, I tend to use stone brick fences. They look slimmer, give more visual space and still look the part. It does get a bit finnicky when placing doors or - heavens forbid - trying to mix blocks, but it can make a build feel less '1 x 1 meter everything' in certain sections of corridor.
This castle is so practical!
Not like all these semi-fantasy castles other builders build
100% agreed. I get a thought like this myself too
Let's be honest. If we wanted something practical in Minecraft we wouldn't build a castle
I really love the way you do these tutorials. No overly complicated or arbitrary designs, no super rare materials from the bottom of the ocean, the fact that you explain the design process and the logic behind it is so helpful for applying these ideas in other areas. Can't wait for the next one!
Those are, in fact, many of my criteria for these builds!
Been playing Minecraft for years, but finally the bug has hit me 15 years later to really build something, and this has been a great template to start with, easily explained, and thanks so much for the video!
Awesome Jonathan! Can’t wait to see what you build. Glad to hear from you again, hope all is well!
I never thought that a minecraft build video could be this enriching, the historical commentary give the whole thing so much personality
I'm really glad to see these every time, since I love building historical (but especially _practical)_ castles in Minecraft too.
Some notes from my own experience:
- I like to put trap doors over my arrow slits. Arrow slits are easier to shoot through in Minecraft than in real life, so being able to close them and make the area you're in completely safe is very practical, especially since it means you can heal.
- The crenelations in real life weren't always person-high, but they often were, and I'd recommend making them two blocks high so that they may provide full cover.
- The walls between crenelations are a very smart way to fit machicolations _and_ waist-high wall in one block, and are very aesthetically pleasing because of that... were it not for the fact the wall block has a 1.5 block tall hitbox, which makes shooting over it very difficult. Honestly, I'm not sure how to fix this, since none of the solutions I've tried are ideal:
1) You could you an upside down stair between the crenelations plus a regular stair under where you stand to shoot between the crenelations in order to create machicolations, but then you'd have a full block (the upside-down stair) to shoot over.
2) You could have the crenelations be two blocks out from the supporting wall instead of one, with the machicolations being _between_ the crenelations instead of at their base, with the wall between the crenelations being stairs that are easier to shoot over, but then you'd have full-block holes as machicolations, which players could fall through. or else you could fill the machicolations with blocks like iron bars, to prevent that, but that wouldn't look quite as good.
3) You could replace the wall block between the crenelations with iron bars, which solves the problem of not being able to shoot over them, but that would nix the classic crenelation look.
We really need vertical half-slabs to solve this, but unfortunately we don't have them.
Maybe you could replace the stone brick wall blocks with upper trapdoors with hinges on your side, when “open” the trapdoor hitbox is thinner and might maybe give some protection, and you can “close” them to shoot arrows downwards
For 1) I would instead use an upright stair that's facing away from you, so you'd be shooting "downhill".
@@flakeperson That was my solution in 2), but that makes machicolations impossible, unless the crenelations are out by 2 blocks.
@@MalloonTarka You can still make a machicolation if you put a stair in the floor you stand on. The hole would just be a bit smaller.
@@flakeperson And unfortunately angled in such a way that it becomes impossible to shoot at the base of the wall if the wall is of any notable height. Which is the whole point of machicolations.
Granted, in the course of trying this out in order to make sure I wasn't speaking nonsense I also noticed this is equally true if the block between the crenellations is an upside-down stair facing you, so my solution 1) is disqualified too, unfortunately.
Here I am, watching a video on historical buildings in Minecraft instead of studying for my uni exams, and I must say, I’m fine with that.
I’m not a good builder but this video inspired me to build something from history; thanks to you, I’ll start to embrace my creative side once again.
Adding history to these videos makes me want to see more of them, I hope you will continue to upload more tutorials with historical references and explanations, it adds a lot of flavour to Minecraft
Thank you! Hard at work on the next 👍 Good luck on your exams!
by far one of the best castle tutorials ever.
i REALLY love how you do things historically accurate please continue.
I love that this build is as historically accurate as possible. So many Minecraft builds are too large and fantastical, but this… historically accurate, reasonable size to build yourself in survival, truly amazing.
As someone who typically plays modpacks with tons of decoration mods, It always amazes me how much people like you can do with the vanilla blocks. It's really inspiring, and makes me want to get better at my own builds.
About the spiral staircase, it should start from the left so that anyone walking up would have his right arm (sword arm) trapped against the post, while anyone walking down would have his sword arm free. This made it easier for people in higher levels to defend against invaders trying to climb up the stairs.
I'm sorry but @Shadiversity has proven this to be false.
@@swagnilla_ice what video did shad prove this wrong in? Because this has always been my understanding as well. And in Minecraft it is a correct assumption. Turning a corner to your left lets you peak mobs before they can peak you.
@@jakehouston7721 This one: ruclips.net/video/5HJMqIpYZ8c/видео.htmlsi=NuYYwhBev-RTFH89
@@jakehouston7721 This is just a myth that has never been proven. Just imagine youre fighting on a staircase on the top. Youre the one exposing their lower body to the enemy, while your armor and shield are mostly out of reach. Plus the stairs obstruct your path when youre backing up. Its safe to assume that medieval warfare did not take place on staircases very often, no matter the direction.
@@papageitaucher618 Yep. except exposing your leg is a problem if the stair go right or left, but having an advantage is only the case if the stair start left.
Doesn't mean the defendant want that. But if it happens at least they have all the advantage they can
Absolutely love your methodology of building. Weight, material diversity, structural integrity, utility, rule of cool. I do the same; your build in this video is inspiring.
Awesome! Thank you!
Ok, you became my favorite channel for building. The fact that you added history into explaining is a great touch.
I LOVE your realism, history, functionality, aesthetic, and advice in your builds.
I REALLY hope you keep making cool Minecraft videos, and I appreciate your work m8
Thank you!
I looooove how you mixed historical information and in-game practicality while showing us how you built this castle! It's really entertaining while being so helpful as well.
So glad you like it! Thanks
I do the same thing with my castles, although I try to make it look fancy too :D
also I am trying to make more with white blocks to look like a whitewash of the stone/wood, because REAL LIFE!
You really know a RUclipsr is dedicated to their work when they make their on captions, it’s the small details.
This video single-handedly inspired me to make a new survival world just so I can build one of these, lol
I like these tutorials because they don’t just show you it and re build it for you to copy. It gives a formula you can mess around with.
I clicked this video as just a reference, visually, for parts of a castle I plan to build, as well as to just have something playing on a second monitor. But man, this was so good that I stopped playing my own game and just watched this, over half an hour of great entertainment. Your presentation style is great and I respect the commitment to historical accuracy. Overall design was great, of course, but what stood out the most was seeing how much attention was given to minor details like arrow slit positions or doorknob position. You've got a new fan. I wish you only good luck in growing your channel.
This is the first time I've seen a castle tutorial that makes sense and explains it so you not only can make the one in the video, but you can also customize it, too.
I love this because it's not only showing how to build a castle, but a schemat pattern to build a castle the way you want. Now I know how to build castle that looks pretty decent and make it in different variations. This video with others that you've made will definitetly help me build custom castle that won't look that bad. thx
Been building castles in Minecraft for a long time but this one is definitely the best video I’ve seen in a while. Not only does he explain all the details, there’s also a touch of historical context to make the castle more realistic than just a hollow shell of no use. Thank you so much for this, I’ll definitely build it in my survival world, also look forward to seeing more castle building videos with historic references from you! 🎉
Describing history, easy to follow guide, captions for those who are hard of hearing... This is a great video. You clearly dedicate a lot of effort to having your videos be "perfect". Leaving this comment and a like as a form of engagement, hoping fellow Minecrafters can learn a thing or two from your content (and ofcourse, to motivate you ;) )
Glad you enjoyed it!
I just wanted to say, i have zero interest in building this and havent watched a building tutorial in 10+ years. Idk why but i greatly enjoyed watching this, amazing job. You're clearly onto something
I genuinely can’t wait for the gatehouse to this castle! I love the history lesson and the design
Please keep at this kinda of content for ages I have scoured the internet looking for Minecraft tutorials on how to build historically accurate castles the best I could find was the guy who rebuilt Corfe Castle so this is a godsend thank you
I plan to!
Me and my friend are starting a main Minecraft world again and we decided to go for a medieval look for our main base with all sorts of buildings castles towers etc and we have never tried this before.
Randomly i found your medieval building tutorials and i love them so much it has given me a lot of inspiration. I would love to see more of this content that would be amazing 🙏
THANK YOU. I've been building Norman castles forever in my Minecraft worlds, and this fills a lot of gaps in my builds!
Best compact historical castle build I've seen. 🏰👍
Awesome, thanks!
You are so good at going through the design of these structures that I was able to translate it over to Terraria with zero issues.
Just some tips castle walls would be ticker then you’ve built them, for structural and defensive stability. The stairs going up to the entrance would’ve been more accurate if made out of wood, to be either pushed over or burned in case of attack to stop attackers easily reaching the gate. The inside of castles wouldn’t of been dull and grey stone, medieval people loved colour it would’ve been whitewashed and painted over with murals and colourful images, the inside would be full of colour maby just left whitewashed or hung with tapestry’s along the wall with depictions on them. Machicolations are also not murder holes. And a room with a stone roof such as the entrance and the basement would have to have a vaulted calling to support the stones weight, not just arches.
learning history while making a cool build in minecraft.... this is gold
Norman castles are my favorite types to build in Minecraft. This is such a great video breakdown of the functionality. Cheers mate
Cheers! 🍺 Thanks
I like how he called machiculations murder holes, but then added real murder holes at 22:57 haha. May not be historical for that castle type, but it _is_ historical!
Love this build. Inspired me to create something similar. It is simple enough, yet beautiful and functional and as you said navigatable. Thanks for the effort you out in and pointing out where it is historically accurate and where not. Looking forward to future videos and will check your current ones!
Thank you!
love the historical aspect of this castle, and its functionality inside minecraft. gonna build this next time my friends get a server going
0:47 Hmmmm... Maybe if we just rename the meter to "blocks" then the next generation of Americans would be completely on board with going metric?
my favourite parts in these videos is the historical facts you add. That for me, is the most helpful. As a relatively experienced castle builder, the building i already know most of the minecraft tips
Ah, we've built a Norman castle, but I'd like to build a MORMON castle! Will it have delicious casseroles in every room? Will Trey Parker film movies in it?
Norman castle with Mormon casseroles?
Mormon castle with Norman casseroles?
the fact you made it mostly entirely in vanilla is impressive
"In Minecraft," yeah okay. I think this guy is telling people to build castles IRL...
This tutorial is phenomenal! Not only is it easy to follow along for anyone interested in this building style but it's also very educational and informative on tactical reasons for the slightest details on things as simple as which direction to have a door open up. No brainer easy subscription. A+!
Thank you!
If you are a bedrock player and Cant figure out how to place beds ontop of eachother because nobody cares about how we have to deal with things, you start with the top bed and then the bottom bed. By building with blocks then destroying them. Have fun!
I think you can sneak and click, but it works in random updates, and sometimes not for some reason
This. Is. Amazing.
This is so balanced between being historically accurate and being a medium-scale Minecraft build.
Thank you very much.
Nice work love it
Thanks!
This was an absolutely fantastic build and castle. I've made one myself in a modded server with some friends and it's the talk of the town! Love the historical accuracy and the functionality! Great tutorial, great voice, and great channel! Can't wait to see more builds from you!
I literally just finished building this. It wasn't easy, but damn it was fun! Especially putting my own twist on a few areas, finding alternatives in the ATM9 pack I'm playing in, it's all so wonderful! Thank you so much, both for the tutorial and the small history lesson. I never would have thought that they didn't have chimneys back then... It was literally something I learned from this video, I thought it was an ancient thing!
9:00 too wide? Or two wide?
Two blocks wide
This channel is a hidden gem
Should of been a motte and bailey castle
Ah yes. After spending days building my keep, only AFTER I finished it do I get recommended this video. This was super entertaining though, thanks
I wish you hadn't stopped the realism at the exterior; seeing those furnaces just stacked to a corner made me sad
Watching this come together is so satisfying. Two of my favorite things combined so beautifully!
My girlfriend and I were writing a story together about royalty - lots of character-driven pain and political nonsense inspired by both history and fiction - and I had started building the main castle in a modded Minecraft world. I only JUST found your previous two videos and was using them for inspiration on the build - and then THIS came out too! You have perfect timing; I'm sure my build will be so much better for it; thank you!
Thank you! That sounds like great fun.
The look of it just reminds me of Age Of Empires II, so much nostalgia 🥰
You're impressively good at texturing builds. A lot of people do it just cause they know they should, and it ends up just being distracting, but the walls on this build look so natural
This is unbelievably satisfying for my inner history nerd, thank you
I made a a slightly different version of this with polished deepslate as the main material. The black color gives it a more menacing presence. I also built it on the top of a mountain overhanging a cliff face for even more presence. I love it and it has served me well. Thanks for the idea ❤
That sounds awesome!
Love this! I built something very similar in my survival world.
Placed it in a village and then fortified the village with a wall
I don't really do that much minecraft, but this here is an EXCELLENT video. I hope you turn it into a series
There's a lot of neat details where you've given dome thought to both the history and function of what might otherwise look like decoration. Kudos
Seeing this castle reminds me of the castle used for the West and Central Europe civilizations in Age of Empires 2 and I LOVE IT.
I am now tempted to do my own spin on this since I play modded Minecraft which adds a lot of furniture and decor...
I just looked up the real castle and it's all there! You matched it so well!
I've just discovered your channel and I must say that I am addicted to your explanations! I really appreciate the fact you back up every element that is placed with logic as to why it should be there, it makes the learning process more intuitive and entertaining. Hats off to you!
Do more stuff like this. Make a whole medium sized kingdom
MAN I just got to the point where you build proper battlements with machicolation, so good! I've been trying to figure out a way to build those very compact but somehow never thought of your method.
Love this build! It's big enough to work on its own, but small enough to be manageable. Very well done. And I appreciate when you differentiate between what is and isn't historically accurate in the build; it lends you a great deal of credibility.
A quick note on glass: there is evidence in some Old Norse (so Early Medieval) great halls for glass from as far afield as Egypt or Constantinople. Obviously it wasn't very much glass, but it was impressive at the time. The glass was green and showed traced of natron, which is pretty cool! I think you were right to eschew the glass in a standalone keep, but I could definitely see some storytelling potential in a keep that starts out without any glass, and then as the castle gets further built up around it, the lord and his family buy some Alexandrian or Byzantine (or, for glass closer to home, Venetian) glass to put in their windows and show off their wealth!
Thanks! Inspiring your imagination, sounds like. I love it!
You can use hanging signs for ceiling beams and railings. Trap doors also generally work better for railings than fences.
I love how strategic everything is!
We followed along and did this build on top of a big hill. It looks great and was pretty easy to follow. Thanks!
oh my god ive been trying to build working castles like this for so long, im so happy to see someone else is doing it too!
I really enjoyed following this build! I hope you make more Medieval and Middle Ages builds soon.
Just some advice: a simple minimap showing where you are and which direction you're looking at would really help to understand where exactly you're building, especially when it comes to symmetrical builds such as this one where it's hard to make out where you're building sometimes. Even just specifying the location when talking (e.g. back left, front right) would be more than enough!
Great advice, thanks! If you know of a mod that shows a scalable minimap please let me know. Another idea I had that I didn’t do this time was to record everything with Replay Mod and any time I’m building in 1st person, show a 3rd person angle small, overlayed, in the upper right corner. Think that might’ve helped?
I realize now, how simply thought and built a castle can be built in minecraft without it being too big for my own skill or patience. I always had issues with builds getting too ambitious and running away from my own time and energy. I love it. This changes everything for me
I have exactly the same issue, specifically i’m addicted to restoring Ancient Cities and endlessly expanding villages.
I have to appreciate your builds even as an experienced builder. As you make explaining this look so easy.
Plus with the basics explained like here, it'd be up to the viewer then to add or substract things they like/didn't like and expand their builds from there.
Would definitely share your vids to people, who've asked me to teach them my methods over the years.
@@RoyJERaiy Exactly, thank you! Start with this easy build and expand on it as your planning and building skills develop in Minecraft.
@@dudieboy Didn't expect a response after the video has been on for a month. cool!
Would be interesting to see you applying your ideas perhaps on a larger scale. The equivalent of a small village/town perhaps.
Perhaps could still learn a thing or two from someone who isn't an old dog like myself. (since i've been building stuff in creative since 1.5.1)
Please, make these historically informed tutorials into a series! They are so well made and so addicting! Maybe you could even deviate from the Early Middle Ages and build in other styles (Gothic as in the Late Middle Ages, Roman Classical as in the Roman Empire Era, etc...)!
Thanks! They sorta are a series at this point. I've created this playlist and added it to my channel page: ruclips.net/p/PLg1i7MTLl7UelgekgLg9hvgBEUWrfwnea
Please continue on the Hardcore series! I know it wasn't hugely popular but I really loved watching it!
Thanks! Several people have asked. I’m considering a way to wrap up that series satisfactorily, please stay tuned 👍
this gives me an idea for a fun minigame, you give all the players like mining fatigue and limit the inventory slots very much and they have to plan the invasion with all that in mind
The Keep you built for this video looks like it was ripped straight from Stronghold 2, I'm impressed.
LOL! Some others commented the same. I'm gonna have to check out this game.
Its funny that I was trying to make a Norman style building in minecraft, but couldn't do it. Then there were no tutorials, but then months later I stumble on this video.
Of all the tutorials on RUclips, this has to be my favorite one!!! I remember touring castles in England in the late 90's. This is great!!!
I want to tour the castles too! With my tape measure, and get all these measurements right!
Love this video! I like building castles in Minecraft, and this hits both my personal favorite traits of being both functional and stylistic. It looks great! Personally if I try to make something like this next time I play Minecraft, I might bump up the scale a wee bit, maybe just by two extra blocks along each side to add a bit more elbow room. Also, maybe turn that empty space beneath the entrance hall into a dungeon/torture chamber or some kind of secret alchemy lab.
Nice!
I think I needed this video. Not only because it’s entertaining, but also because I sometimes overcommit to castle builds and need to remember to return to basics.
Excellent! Yes, it’s ok to plan a build that isn’t the biggest castle ever. 🙂
This is such a beautiful guide, not only do you show how to make stuff look beautiful and take advantage of minecrafts limited but also cozy vibe, you present a clear respect to the source material being represented rather than grey box made of stone with shooting points. Reminds me of when I'd watch Shadowversity's sketch up videos of his custom castle designs.
Thank you for this, well spoken, well explained, video. As a dad trying to get into this game with the kids, this video is a godsend.
Awesome! Glad it helps
I want to stress that this being an "easy" design does not mean it's worse or a lower quality than any other castle.
In fact I find a lot of castle builds tend to be too busy and needlessly decorated in ways that hinder the design rather than help it. Sometimes simple and clean is simply the best, and a castle like this is simple and clean.
My thoughts exactly in designing it. Thanks!
Love this video. The detail in explaining the door placement among others was top notch. We need a series of "Correctly" build tutorials!
As someone who loves medieval history, historical accuracy, and architecture, this video was amazing. I wish there were more tutorials like this that delved into the actual historical information of a build and try to stay as close to realistic as possible.
You definitely got a like and a comment from me! I’m also adding this to a couple playlists so I never lose it. Thank you, and well done!
Awesome thanks! I wish there were more too, so I’m making them. 😁
pretty cool that you considered defensive positions like how enemies use the arrow holes making cover from the doors
I love your attitude man, its refreshing to have a fun, optimistic, and informational creator.
Absolutely lovin’ the Historical builds and tutorials, they’re wonderful mate, I hope to see more. Keep up the good work mate! (OMG HE LIKED IT!!!)
Don't usually leave many comments, but just wanted to say this video was cool as hell. Love to see historical facts weaved into neat building ideas. Super fine fantastic work, man.
I love the castle-building archetype and this is the perfect channel for it
Fantastic build, concessions, reasoning, presentation. Just fantastic mate, your love for the topic is on full display too! Hope you get to come tour some of our old castles IRL someday!
@@robertbartlett9237 🤞