Peel Castle - Toilet
In mediaeval times, the sanitation in Peel Castle was actually quite good, and it could boast eleven toilets, one of which is pictured here (though the iron grid is a recent addition to stop tourists falling down the hole!).
Toilets were usually built as near to the outside wall as possible, so that the sewage had only a short distance to go. However, such facilities could pose problems for security, as anywhere that material could get out would also provide an opportunity for determined enemies to get in as happened on more than one occasion in European castles.Several solutions were adopted at Peel including having a discharge pipe high up the outer wall making access difficult. Another technique was to construct the toilet in such a way so that its contents were collected in an underground pit which was drained in some way inaccessible from the outside.
There are a number of toilets on the ramparts and in the flanking towers. This meant that the patrols didn't have to stray far from their beats and it also meant that in the middle of the night they weren't knocking on officials' doors asking if they could go to the toilet!
Author of this Article: Isleofman Dot Com Ltd