Rimegate

Rimegate is one of the nineteen castles that once stood along the Wall, a fortress long abandoned by the Night's Watch. In the aftermath of the battle beneath the Wall, as Jon Snow struggles to prepare for the coming winter and the threat of the Others, the empty castles become a central strategic concern. Rimegate, like Hoarfrost Hill and others, remains ungarrisoned, a gap in the Wall's defenses that Jon knows he cannot afford to leave open.

Strategic Importance and the Need for Garrisons

Jon Snow's plan to repopulate the abandoned castles is driven by necessity. The Night's Watch is stretched thin, and the free folk who have passed through the Wall under Tormund Giantsbane's leadership need to be settled. Jon intends to place them in these forts, under the command of his own officers, to both house the wildlings and strengthen the Wall's defenses. When he asks his advisors, Bowen Marsh and Othell Yarwyck, for their views on which wildling chiefs might be best suited to hold Rimegate and Hoarfrost Hill, they offer only scorn. Marsh declares that he knows all these men by their deeds and should be fitting them for nooses, not giving them castles. Yarwyck agrees, calling the choices "bad and worse and worst" and likening the selection to being presented with a pack of wolves and asked which one should be allowed to tear out their throats. Jon's plan to garrison Rimegate is thus met with deep resistance from his own officers, who see the free folk as irredeemable enemies rather than potential allies.

The Unfilled Fortress

Despite Jon's intentions, Rimegate remains ungarrisoned as the events of the novel unfold. The work of restoring the other forts, such as the Nightfort, consumes the Watch's limited resources. The free folk are settled at Oakenshield, Stonedoor, Queensgate, and other castles, but Rimegate and Hoarfrost Hill are left empty. This failure to fill the gap represents a persistent vulnerability in the Wall's defenses, a weakness that Jon is acutely aware of but cannot immediately remedy. The castle stands as a symbol of the immense task before the Lord Commander and the deep divisions between the black brothers and the free folk that he must overcome.