Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/187

 DUNDONALD CASTLE 167 SECOND PERIOD plighted." Also that " the sklait roofe of the hows and battlement thairof be taken downe, with the lofting thairof, dores and windows of the samen, and to tak out the haile iron worke of the samen." Power is further given to the Laird of Balmaghie " to work his will with the castle, and to put sex musqueteires and ane sergand thairin, to be enter- teanit upon the public." l Now the work of demolition is being carried on surely and swiftly by the elements. DUNDONALD CASTLE, AYRSHIRE. The royal castle of Dundonald stands on the summit of an isolated, steep hill, and is a most conspicuous object for miles around. It is situ- ated about 8 miles north from Ayr, and commands the wide expanse of level country lying in the basin of the Irvine and Garnock rivers. The base of the hill on which the castle stands was surrounded by a moat, part of which at present exists on the north-west side, and is full of water. There have been outworks at various parts of the hill, indicated here and there by green mounds. This castle was a favourite habitation of Robert n. and Robert in., the former of whom died here in 1390. It is therefore naturally on a much more extensive scale than most of the keeps of the fourteenth century, but it is of the same general plan. The building is of two periods. The original kefcp (Fig. 133) is an oblong block, 81 feet 8 inches by 40 feet, and as it now stands is 60 feet high, while its height when entire was not less than 10 feet more. It is divided in height into two pointed arched compartments (Fig. 134), the FIG. 134. Dundonald Castle. Sections. lower, which was partly subdivided into three stories, and partly into two with wooden floors, is 37 feet high, and the upper one, which is ruined, was about 25 feet high (Fig. 139A). The original entrance to the castle ] See MacKerlie's History of Galloway.