What were castles made of

Before the 1100's most castles were built out of timber and earth. The castle stood on a hill, man made hill, or peninsula. Before the 1100's, the keep(castle) was made of wood and used for last defensive place for the major people like King and Queen. In the 1100's, the Europeans began to build more and more castles out of stone. Every castle began to evolve from wood to stone. The castles became stone because it was better protection from fires, enemy attackers, and weather. In the late 1200's, strong stone walls and towers started to replace the keep as the castles main defence. Some stone castles had an inner courtyard called the inner baily or inner ward. The courtyard was surrounded by high stone walls, which, in turn, were protected by additional encircling walls. A moat would be dug out by men and then the dirt was used to build a baily and a motte. The whole castle and daily took ten years to build.