the meaning of "low-hanging"

[kjc0123]

What is the meaning of "low-hanging" in the following sentences?

Entering the narrow, low-hanging walkways that bordered the courtyard perimeter, Langdon felt the familiar uneasiness he always felt in enclosed spaces. These walkways were called cloisters, and Langdon noted with uneasiness that these particular cloisters lived up to their Latin ties to the word claustrophobic.

[woofgang]

that the ceiling or whatever was above the walkway was low

[nicolab6]

The term is normally left to describe fruit on trees - i.e. the low hanging fruit is the easier fruit to get hold of.  In management speak, if you pick hte low hanging fruit, you are doing the easy things first and leaving the more difficult ones till later.

[woofgang]

see i thought that the walkways might be open (some cloisters are) and the low hanging bit tmight be tree branches or whatever growing over the cloister

[flaming]

Yes, my "automatic mind picture" would have conjured up a LOW CEILINGED cloister although I probably would have fleetingly noticed that it could have been written thus;  however, it is emphasised  that the cloisters have a lower than usual ceiling by the phrase "these particular cloisters lived ....... claustrophobic".