Giant catapult shots have been discovered at Kenilworth Castle.

Kenilworth Castle has been undergoing work over the past few months to improve accessibility around the site for pedestrians and wheelchair users, including on permissive pathways outside the site that are cared for by English Heritage.

A team working around the site unearthed eight perfectly preserved shots which were excavated outside the castle walls.

The stone spheres are of varying sizes, with the largest weighing 105kg and the smallest just 1kg. The discovery was made during a major project to improve accessibility around the castle.

It was thought these shots would have been fired from a catapult during the siege of Kenilworth Castle 1266, when England faced a civil war, because of similar finds recovered during an archaeological excavation at Kenilworth Castle in the 1960s.

The siege of Kenilworth Castle.
In 1266 between 25 June and 13 December; for a total of 172 days, Kenilworth Castle was under constant attack in one of the most significant military contests of Henry III's reign.

The king's conflict with his nobles had escalated into civil war some years before. The leader of the rebels was his brother-in-law Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, who had custody of Kenilworth Castle.

When Montfort was killed in August 1265 at the Battle of Evesham, his supporters continued to use Kenilworth as a base. In March 1266, Henry's messenger to the rebels was returned to him with a severed hand. Outraged, Henry then attempted to reclaim the former royal stronghold by force.

The king used a large arsenal of weaponry in his attacks on Kenilworth, including 60,000 crossbow bolts and nine siege engines including catapults, in an attempt to breach the 14-feet thick walls of the castle.

However, the garrison inside had also equipped themselves with similar siege engines. It is the stone projectiles that were being fired from both sides that have been found outside the west castle walls, close to the ground's surface.

After almost six months, the resistance efforts of the rebels fell to starvation and disease, and surrendered Kenilworth Castle to Henry, who then gave it to his son, Edmund, Earl of Lancaster.

Photo: English Heritage