yett

Noun

yett (plural yetts)

1. (Geordie, Scotland) Gate.
   • They rode into the outer courtyard, through the muckle faulding yetts and aneath the auld portcullis; […]1824, Sir Walter Scott, Redgauntlet
   • The outer yett was closed, and a torch burned in a socket set in the gatehouse wall beside the archway. A guard stepped up, peered through the yett at Guillaume, and nodded to someone off to the side.2015, Douglas Nicholas, Throne of Darkness, page 126
2. A gate made of iron bars, used for defensive purposes in castles and other buildings, which is hinged to open like a door, rather than being raised and lowered like a portcullis.
   • [A] yett was in use along with the portcullis. At Doune we have an example of an existing yett, set about a foot behind the portcullis grooves; of course, it is impossible to say whether the two were contemporary, but it seems[…]1888, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, page 318
   • ... yett was solid . At Doune, Perthshire, dating from the latter years of the fourteenth century, the main gateway was defended by a portcullis and a yett at the entrance, and, apparently, by another yett, […]2013 April 9, Sidney Toy, Castles: Their Construction and History, Courier Corporation, →ISBN, page 201