this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2025
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I get your point but also I'm a pedantic Lemming, so I want to point out that in the middle-ages, castle would purposefully build uneven steps. People familiar with the castle would soon get used to them and they'd be no bother, but an attacker running upwards will surely trip. And they'll trip because of the stairs. Or will it be their own fault for not looking at each individual step to give your body the information it needs?
Just rhetorical exercise, I don't actually care at all about one side or the other.
(An added stair fact, round staircases would ascend in a clockwise manner, so that right-handed defenders would have the advantage over right-handed attackers whilst fighting in the stairs.)
It’s a little more interesting than this even. Your brain knows the stair riser heights after 2-3 steps, so individual stairs can be different riser heights, 125-200mm (5-8”). Each riser can’t be more than 3mm different in an individual stair. Not uncommon for your upper stairs to be slightly different from the bottom if there’s a landing.
So those people do consciously need to remember step 15 is different or they can trip. The rest would be pretty normal.
Also varied tread depth.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/21/Stumble_steps.jpg/500px-Stumble_steps.jpg
We had some stone steps in the yard of a house I grew up in and I could still run those even in the dark, but I'm sure anyone running after me, unfamiliar with the steps would stumble.
I'm just wondering whether the ingenuity was from someone who actually designed them as such, or someone who did a poor job, almost got a bollocking, but then launched into a rant about how it's actually a defensive feature.