Which kinda suggests it wasn't a First Man castle at that time, since thats who they were opposing. When wet, the blocks appear to be covered with fine black oil.Ī number of other significant ancient sites around the world are made with 'oily Black Stone' or 'fused Black Stone' and seem to be from an advanced pre-historic civilisation.įurther, legend says that the Children of the Forest gathered at 'the Childrens Tower', of Moat Cailin, to cast the Hammer of the Waters and break the Neck. The great blocks of Black Basalt seem to be rare and not locally sourced - at least there is no other castle anywhere near with similar stone. There are clues that perhaps Moat Cailin was built before the First Men.

But alas there are no any real facts supporting that theory. My personal theory is that house Towers is somehow connected, bc we know that MC had 20 towers and we also know that house Towers was wiped out by rising house Stark. I assume that during building of the Moat that area could support large population and that area was under control of a petty king who build that castle. By legend that huge swamp was created when greensee'ers used hammer of the waters. When MC was build the Neck was totally different and area around MC was not huge swamp. The fortress is basically falling into the swamp, so either the swamp has advanced since the fortress was first built, or we’ve got a Monty Python situation going on here. So how did the First Men build Moat Cailin in its peak condition (1) with less financial resources and a lower population, and (2) on such uneven and hazardous ground. One would imagine that it’s a lot more expensive to build a fortress up from scratch than to repair an old one. Honestly it doesn’t quite make sense to me how the fortress was ever built in the first place.

I tend to think like Bolt that either it became unnecessary to have such a stronghold in readiness or they were not allowed by the Crown.ĭespite of being semi in ruins, its defensive value is still considerable. An indication of this importance is there are hints that MC is directly controlled by the Starks and not by any bannerman in their name, in a similar fashion to the Gates of the Moon in the Vale Anyway keeping the fortress more or less in shape should be quite important. Unless the Starks do not charge any toll because that traffic is actually beneficial for the North's economy. If the Twins have such importance for commerce, the traffic up to the Neck should be quite large and since MC is at the other end, they should also collect tolls. The thing is there is a world building issue around MC. Comfort is not a high priority for a fort. Besides, ruined as it was, it was still effective. The Starks are not the wealthiest of families.

Game of thrones moat cailin