Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/183

 TH REAVE CASTLE 163 SECOND PERIOD A doorway corbelled out over the dungeon roof leads to the staircase in the north-west angle of the building. From this corbelling it would FIG. 129. Threave Castle. Interior Basement Floor. appear that the dungeon was an afterthought, as, had it been originally there, the corbelling might have been dispensed with, as the vault could have carried the projecting wall con- taining the doorway. This stair, the only one in the castle, leads to the upper floors and the battlements. It is now quite ruinous, not a single step remaining. The great hall, 46 feet 3 inches long by 25 feet 5 incheswide, is lighted by side windows which had mullions and transomes, and were provided with stone seats. In the east wall there is an opening 2 feet wide, which seems originally to have been meant as a doorway, about 30 feet above the ground, but it has been converted into a window. About 4 or 5 feet below this doorway, on the outside face of the wall, there have been two corbels, now cut away (Fig. 128). for the beams of a bridge leading across to the top of the high entrance gateway, which apparently had no other mode of access. It would thus These were evidently the rests