{"id":2398,"date":"2015-09-15T11:37:51","date_gmt":"2015-09-15T11:37:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scotclans.com\/bletherskite\/?p=2398"},"modified":"2015-09-15T11:37:51","modified_gmt":"2015-09-15T11:37:51","slug":"left-handed-clan-kerr-and-the-reverse-spiral-staircase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/project1-m9gb2xku8.live-website.com\/?p=2398","title":{"rendered":"Left Handed Clan Kerr and The Reverse Spiral Staircase"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_39355\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-39355\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/clan_kerr_staircase.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-39355\" alt=\"Diagram of the Clan Kerr staircase\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/clan_kerr_staircase.png\" width=\"600\" height=\"319\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-39355\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram of the Clan Kerr staircase<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The use of spiral staircases in medieval castles served as clever defence systems. They were almost always built with the spiral in the same direction (clockwise, when looking up from the bottom) so that the defending swordsman, who would either be coming down the stairs or backing up in reverse, could freely swing his sword. Conversely, the attacking swordsman (ascending the stairs) would have his swing blocked by the wall.<\/p>\n<p>This, of course, assumed that both attacker an defender were right-handed, which most were.<\/p>\n<p>Left-handed swordsman, though rare, had the advantage of surprise when attacking out-in-the-open \u2013 they had fought (and trained against) more right-handed opponents than their adversary had fought left-handed opponents. Their attack when ascending standard spiral staircases was also not blocked by the wall.<\/p>\n<p>The warlike <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scotclans.com\/scottish-clans\/clan-kerr\/\">Clan Kerr<\/a> trained to use their weapons with their left hands. Scottish Poet James <a href=\"\/scottish-clans\/clan-hog\/\">Hogg<\/a> (1770-1835) wrote, in The Raid of the Kerrs:<\/p>\n<p>But the Kerrs were aye the deadliest foes<\/p>\n<p>That e&#8217;er to Englishmen were known<\/p>\n<p>For they were all bred left handed men<\/p>\n<p>And fence [defence] against them there was none<\/p>\n<p>and Walter Laidlaw wrote, in The Reprisal:<\/p>\n<p>So well the Kerrs their left-hands ply<\/p>\n<p>The dead and dying round them lie<\/p>\n<p>Legend has it that, to allow them to more easily defend<a href=\"http:\/\/www.scotclans.com\/scotland\/visit-scotland\/scottish-castles\/scottish-borders\/ferniehirst-castle\/\"> Ferniehirst Castle<\/a> \u2013 seat of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scotclans.com\/scottish-clans\/clan-kerr\/\">Clan Kerr <\/a>\u2013 the staircase was built spiralling in the other direction (see illustration above, with left-handed Kerr shown with ginger hair).<\/p>\n<p>Is this true? Certainly, the castle does feature a reverse spiral staircase, but a 1993 study found no increased incidence of left-handedness in Kerrs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The use of spiral staircases in medieval castles served as clever defence systems. They were almost always built with the spiral in the same direction (clockwise, when looking up from the bottom) so that the defending swordsman, who would either be coming down the stairs or backing up in reverse, could freely swing his sword. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":39355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[132],"tags":[1467,133],"class_list":["post-2398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kerr","tag-ferniehirst-castle","tag-kerr"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Left Handed Clan Kerr and The Reverse Spiral Staircase -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/project1-m9gb2xku8.live-website.com\/?p=2398\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Left Handed Clan Kerr and The Reverse Spiral Staircase -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The use of spiral staircases in medieval castles served as clever defence systems. 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