Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/264

 THIRD PERIOD 244 CARDONESS CASTLK aiTangements. In the latter respect it recalls the plans of Elphinstone and Comlongan Towers. The castle is oblong in plan, measuring over the walls 42 feet 1 1 inches by 31 feet 11 inches (Fig. 201). It is 53 feet high to the top of the walls, and 71 feet to the top of the gables. The basement has a vault 15 feet 3 inches high, containing an intermediate floor. The upper floors, which were of wood, are all gone (see Section). FIG. 200. Cardoness Castle. General View. The entrance door is in the side wall (see Plan of Ground Floor)., with a slot-hole for the bar behind the door, and leads into a passage in the thickness of the wall, entering from which on the left hand is a small mural guard-room, and on the right hand is the wheel stair, which goes to the top and the intermediate floors. In front are two doors leading to the two chambers into which the under vault was divided. The larger of these, lighted by two narrow slits, contains two singular round recesses at the angles of the main walls, with massive diagonal sills about 3 feet 6 inches above the floor. This peculiar shape makes their purpose somewhat obscure. Pro- bably these circular recesses were formed as a kind of inner turret, to enable the loopholes to be used for defensive purposes. Entering oft' the stair, at about the level of the upper room or entresol in the vault, are two mural chambers (see Plan of Entresol). One of these extends over the entrance lobby, and has a trap down to it, useful both for defence and for hauling up goods ; the other, in the end wall, enters off the passage to the entresol. It has been an upper prison or guard-room, with a garde-robe, and has a trap down to a dark dungeon beneath. The view of the hall (Fig. 202) is very striking in its ruined state, with the bold arch thrown from wall to wall for supporting an upper partition which divides the top floor into two rooms. The hall is lighted