Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/280

 THIRD PERIOD 260 CRAIGNETHAN CASTLE son, the foresaid James Hamilton of Finnart. He is generally believed to have been himself an architect (a view which his office of Super- intendent of Royal Palaces seems to support), and to have designed and directed the works in the rebuilding of Draffane or Craignethan. To him are to be attributed the enclosing walls and towers round the keep, including the large south-east tower. He also appears to have created the outer courtyard and surrounded it with the walls and towers which still stand. As originally built, the keep and surrounding wall were well detached by the moat or ditch from the adjoining land, but when the outer court- yard was added it became necessary, in order to obtain room for it, to place the west wall close to a high point of land, which greatly cramps the approach, and which completely overlooks the interior of the outer courtyard. This courtyard, although very ornamental, is thus but of small value in point of defence, and would never have been so constructed had not the previous existence of the keep and the nature of the site rendered it unavoidable. Hence also the great care which is bestowed on the defences of the inner courtyard. These consist in the first place of the moat, 30 feet wide and probably 12 feet deep, though now partly filled up. It is faced on each side with dressed walls, and so far as can now be ascertained, the only access from the outer to the inner courtyard was by a narrow gateway, 5 feet wide, provided with a portcullis, from which in all probability a drawbridge gave entrance to the tower (now in ruins) on the inner side of the moat. It will be observed that this gate is as wide as the entrance to the outer court. The intention evidently was not to make gateways suitable for wheeled conveyances, which could scarcely reach this lofty and inaccessible site, and were scarcely ever used in those days, but for foot-passengers or horses only. The west side of the inner court has been defended with a very strong wall or rampart. The foundations, which are now only a few feet above the level of the inner courtyard, are fully 16 feet wide. This thickness probably contained a wall on each side with a vaulted passage between, and was made of this great width in order to receive heavier artillery on the summit. The guns were probably mounted in upper vaulted chambers in the thickness of the wall, and provided with hori- zontal loops similar to those of the south-east tower (to be noticed immediately), or there may have been two tiers of guns, one over the other, and an open battlement above. The enclosing walls on the north and east sides are greatly ruined^ but that on the south side is still in fair preservation. It is strengthened with a square tower adjoining the moat, and another in the centre, both provided with horizontal embrasures for guns. The south-east tower (Fig. 214) is of unusual size, being 34 feet by 31 feet 9 inches externally, and is three stories in height. The base-