Great hall
A great hall was the main room of a royal palace, a nobleman's castle or a large manor house in the Middle Ages. At that time the word great meant big. Great halls were found in France, England and Scotland and some other European countries.
Appearance
A great hall was a rectangular room between 1.5 and 3 times as long as it was wide, and also higher than it was wide. At night some members of the household might sleep on the floor of the great hall.
Examples
Two very large surviving royal halls are Westminster Hall and the Wenceslas Hall in Prague Castle. Penshurst Place in Kent, England has a hall from the 14th century. There are lots of 16th century and early 17th century halls in England, Wales and Scotland, for example those at Longleat (England), Burghley House (England), Bodysgallen Hall (Wales), Muchalls Castle (Scotland) and Crathes Castle (Scotland); however, by the late 1700s the great hall was beginning to lose its purpose over time.
Great Hall Media
The Great Hall in Barley Hall, York, restored to replicate its appearance in around 1483
The great hall of The Abbey, Sutton Courtenay in 1906, filled with hunting trophies
Great Hall at Stokesay Castle
Plan of Horham Hall, including a screens passage, leading from the entrance porch; a dais; a bay window. The main staircase is at the dais end, and the hall was the full height of the two-storey house
The Great Hall at Stirling Castle built for James IV. The larger windows lit the high table
The Ridderzaal in The Hague is the main building of the 13th-century inner square of the former castle of the counts of Holland called Binnenhof
Great Hall of Stirling Castle, Scotland, view towards the north showing screens passage, with minstrels' gallery above
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