Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/230

 SECOND PERIOD 210 CRICHTON CASTLE They have since passed through many hands, and are now the property of W. Burn Callendar, Esq. The castle is situated on a platform near the top of a steep upland hill, which rises from the valley of the Tyne, in Midlothian, near its source, and not far from Borthwick Castle. s/ T- "* FIG. 177. Crichton Castle. Plan of Ground Floor. Simple as the fourteenth-century keeps are, they have almost all some peculiarity of plan, as will be seen is the case here. At Crichton the keep (shaded black in Fig. 1 77) is of the usual oblong form, being 46 feet 6 inches long by 33 feet 8 inches broad. The walls are 7 feet 4 inches thick. It is partly ruined, but still retains portions of two plain barrel vaults (Fig. 178), one of which, at the level of the hall floor, is semicircular, and encloses the usual two basement stories, and the other, which is slightly pointed, forms the roof of the hall. The original entrance to the ground floor was from the north, whence