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Glossary

Base cruck
A type of timber construction in which curving paired members (blades) rise from ground level to a tie-beam or collar-beam which supports the roof timbers.
Basement
Lowest, subordinate storey; hence the lowest part of a classical elevation, below the piano nobile or principal storey.
Basilica
A Roman public hall; hence an aisled building, especially a church, with a clerestory, i.e. windows in the walls rising over the aisles.
Basket arch
A three-centred and depressed arch, or one with a flat centre; also called anse de panier (French, lit. basket handle).
Bastion
One of a series of defensive semicircular or polygonal projections from the main wall of a fortress or city.
Batter
Intentional inward inclination of a wall face.
Battlement
Defensive parapet, composed of merlons (solid) and crenels or crenelles (embrasures or openings) through which archers could shoot; sometimes called crenellation. Also used decoratively. Irish battlements have the up-and-down rhythm of merlons and crenels interrupted at the corners, which are built up in a series of high steps; typical of late medieval Irish architecture.
Bawn
(Irish, lit. ox fold): Defensive walled enclosure attached to, or near, a tower house or Plantation castle.
Bay
Division of an elevation or interior space as defined by regular vertical features such as arches, columns, windows etc.
Bay leaf
Classical ornament of overlapping bay leaves.