posted 03-03-2005 09:48 AM            

Nowadays, castles have lovely things like roaring fires and underfloor central heating!

I can speak from experience, having lived in a castle for a number of years - even when our 'modern' heating wasn't working the castle didn't get exceptionally cold (apart from the staircases, which were cold). The reason for this is that the thick walls acted as an insulating material, so once the place was warmed up, it stayed quite cosy.

If one allowed the place to get cold by not heating at all for several days, well yes, it'd be cold - but the main aim was to maintain a steady background warmth by keeping the main fire burning - the heat going up the chimney would also warm up rooms on the upper floors.

Levan