Mission 651
Motte to Mighty: Build a Castle, Then Upgrade It
Badge: Castle Raiser
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Build a motte-and-bailey castle in wood, then upgrade it all to stone.
1066: you crash-land in a muddy field. Build a wooden castle on a hill fast, then upgrade it to solid stone.
- New skill Building a mound castle and upgrading it
- Level 7 · Time Travellers
- Difficulty Intermediate
- Mode Creative
- Time 45–60 min
- Ages 13+
What you’ll build
It's 1066 and you've crash-landed in a muddy field. Raise a stepped earth mound, top it with a timber tower and fence in a yard below, all in wood. Then race the clock to upgrade the whole castle to stone, with a curtain wall, keep and gatehouse.
Finish line: Your wooden motte-and-bailey castle is now a stone fortress, with a before-and-after to compare.
Bonus challenge: Build twin towers on the gatehouse. Then hunt: which part of the old wooden castle is still hiding inside your stone one?
You’ll need
- Dirt
- Logs and planks
- Fences
- Stone blocks
You choose
- My castle's name and its ruler
- Where the bailey yard sits beside the mound
- My bet: stone takes ___ times as long as wood
Stuck?
- Mound off-centre? Mark the middle block first and count out the same number of blocks on every side for each layer.
- Take your before screenshot before you start the upgrade, so you can compare at the end.
- Ditch filling up with water? Keep it dry, or fill it on purpose for a moat.
For grown-ups
Get this mission
This mission is in Mission Pack 65. Each printable has the full steps, a Plan & Log page and a parent page.
Print one mission at a time. You never need to print everything.
Played on Minecraft Bedrock on iPad. Buttons can differ on other devices and versions.