Some castles have large metal slingshots designed for launching people to their deaths. The slingshots are no longer used, and are now disarmed, but they are kept for history's sake. The slingshots were used to allow people an easy and exhilarating suicide, as well as for executions, and occasionally murder. Animals were sometimes put in for amusement. Monsters or animals who harmed people were sometimes put in as a satisfying form of revenge, and dummies were sometimes launched just for fun. What can I say? Those were different times. The slingshot is easily activated. As soon as a person, or other suitably heavy object, gets into the position, the sling is automatically launched. Then a crank is pulled to reset the slingshot. The slingshots usually ornate, often with Ferrim statues.
The idea for these large metal slingshots supposedly first came to their inventor in a strange dream.